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HOT FOR THE PASTOR 


BY 

/ 

w. T. HACKER. 


St. Louis: 

CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
1896. 




PREFACE. 


‘ ‘Go AWAY with that stuff! I don’t want to hear any more 
of it. It will never amount to anything, anyhow! ’ ’ exclaimed 
Mrs. Maybrook, as, with manuscript in hand, I walked into 
her kitchen and ventured to read what I had written. The poor 
woman couldn’t be blamed. She had been unusually hard 
pressed with household duties on this particular morning, 
whilst my own mind had been pleasantly employed in recalling 
scenes and events of bygone days and feasting on bright visions 
of authorship. Still, I had faith that my tip-top pastoral 
experience would touch a responsive chord at least in many 
another preacher’s breast. Accordingly, I beat as dignified a 
retreat as possible to my study, where I completed my task, 
which, with the help of the publisher, I now lay before the 
indulgent reader. 

The Author. 


Duluth, Minn., January, 1894. 




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CONTENTS, 


PAGE 

Chapter I. 9 

Chapter II. ..... . 15 

Chapter III. . . . . * .25 

Chapter IV. ...... 32 

Chapter V. ...... 41 

Chapter VI. ...... 45 

Chapter VII. ...... 52 

Chapter VIII 58 

Chapter IX. ...... 64 

Chapter X. ..... . 77 

Chapter XI. ...... 84 

Chapter XII. ...... 91 

Chapter XIII. ...... 97 

Chapter XIV. ..... 102 

Chapter XV. . • , • • .108 

Chapter XVI. ..... 116 

Chapter XVII. . ■ . • • .120 

Chapter XVIII. ., ... 125 

Chapter XIX. . . • • • .128 

Chapter XX. . . . • • 134 

Chapter XXI. . . • • • .138 

Chapter XXII. 

Chapter XXIII 148 





HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


CHAPTER I. 

B efoee giving a description of our new home I 
will speak briefly of our long and uneventful 
trip to this little city in the far West. I need not 
describe the sad scene at the old home depot ; the 
silent handshaking when no one attempted to utter 
a word. There was, at length, a gentle jerk, and 
the great train began moving. Our window was 
lowered after that final adieu was waved. Then 
succeeded that tugging heart-weight, the trem- 
bling lip, the reclining head, the unrestrained 
tears always seen and felt when a sense of abso- 
lute homelessness suddenly crowds upon the mind. 
But it was only momentary. Our train was now 
speeding towards our new home and new life. 
This thought tended to crowd out sadness ; caused 
us to brush away our tears and bravely face the^ 
future. 

As is usually the case, these facts bearing upon 
ourselves must have been noted by a few of our 
fellow-passengers. At least, Mr. Cooper, who had 
boarded the same coach at the same time and 
place, found it convenient to halt in front of the 
( 9 ) 


10 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


seat occupied by myself and wife and say a few 
consoling words. Amongst other remarks of his 
while standing there, I was deeply impressed by 
the following, perhaps because we, at that instant, 
stood so much in need of a little bit of philosophy. 

Said he : “ While these earthly homes of ours 
have their practical and sentimental sides, the sen- 
timental should always yield to the practical, 
especially as these homes are, in their nature, 
transient and fleeting. Therefore,” he concluded, 
“ no matter how closely I may become attached to 
a particular locality where my home may happen 
to be one year, if I can better the material condi- 
tion of myself and family at some other point on 
the earth’s surface, I consider it my duty to 
ohange my home to that other point, though thou- 
sands of miles intervene.” 

Mrs. Maybrook and I both became interested at 
this point and really desired to hear more such 
words, even if we had previously preferred to be 
left to our own reflections. My wife slowly turned 
her attention from the car window to Mr. Cooper’s 
face, and I, unwilling to see him stand, arose and 
occupied with him the vacant seat directly in 
front. 

I told him then where we were going; that in 
response to a call to settle as pastor with a small 
struggling church far out in the mountains of the 
great West, myself and family were, now, fairly 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


11 


on our way thither. I continued, “ We have cut 
loose from the home of our childhood and youth. 
We have left many true hearts behind us, we know. 
Shall we find hearts as true and as many of them 
where we are going ? ” 

“ Of course,” he replied, “ this can only be deter- 
mined by a somewhat protracted residence amongst 
the members of your ^flock and others in your 
new location.” 

“But, oh! the necessity for such a long resi- 
dence in order to find new and true-hearted friends 
and brethren ! Why leave behind so many hearts 
that have already been tested and found true in 
order to look for others amongst strangers ? ” said 
I with downcast eyes, demurely shaking my head. 

“For Christ’s sake!” exclaimed Mrs. May- 
brook. 

“ Yes, for Christ’s sake ! ” I repeated, brighten- 
ing up and glancing back, meantime, at my help- 
ful wife. 

Well, we at last arrived at our journey’s end, 
more dead than alive from the jostle, smoke and 
grime, loss of sleep, and anxiety, the inevitable 
accompaniments of modern railway travel. 

Why it is that, along with all the surprises of 
the age in the line of invention, some genius doesn’t 
think of a contrivance for shielding railway pas- 
sengers from the necessity of almost constantly 
breathing the poisonous coal gas and smoke from 


12 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


the engine, is a matter on which I have often pon- 
dered as a sufferer, but on which I have never been 
able to obtain any light. I^'or would it require 
any great inventive genius to hit upon a device 
of this kind. Having been forced to think 
seriously along this line myself, that necessity 
which is said to be the mother of invention has, at 
times, all but given birth in my own mind to such 
an attachment. 

I need not recount all that was pleasant and 
otherwise during this long journey of many hun- 
dreds of miles. Suffice it to say that there were 
occasional glimpses and surprises that flashed 
upon our minds through the car window west of 
the great rivers, and especially while crossing the 
Hocky Mountains, that caused us to realize gradu- 
ally that we had entered a new world of natural 
phenomena. Tossed up ledges of rock, serving as 
skeletons to mountains, point upward at every 
conceivable angle. Upon the sides of these slant- 
ing ledges, portions of towns and cities have come 
to be built, and the mind in the midst of such a 
war of angles loses the level and is strongly of the 
conviction that costly residences of brick and stone 
are not standing plumb. Mountain streams come 
dashing their waters into foam towards you, and 
you are surprised to see water struggling so hard 
to get up hill. 

Before retiring you sit at your window gazing 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


13 


at the dark mountain wall that obstructs the view 
to the eastward. The eye gradually climbs the 
dark wall, attracted by the increasing light near 
the sky line ; then higher still until the point of the 
longest tooth of this surrated sky line is reached. 
Suddenly and rapidly there rolls around this 
point a bright silver moon, apparently several 
times magnified. That is, after your surprise, you 
are enabled to see that it is the moon ; but you 
were really in doubt at first from the fact that 
her appearance was so sudden and unlooked for, 
so phenomenally large, terrestrial and close at 
hand. 

In the midst of just such surroundings we now, 
strangely enough, discovered that our home life 
was to be found for an indefinite future. 

The town of Hodon claimed a population of 
two thousand souls, and is situated in a large fer- 
tile valley with a rim of mountain walls on every 
side. Upon the eastern swell of this valley, at the 
point where the valley and the mountain may be 
said to come together, the town is built and 
extends in a straggling way up to and within the 
very mouth of Grace Canyon. Out of this canyon 
suddenly rushes a large volume of crystal snow 
water, the most of which glides on, pell mell, 
through the town along the channel which it has 
cut out for itself. Enough, however, is deflected 


14 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


from the main channel to send down the gutters of 
each principal street streams of laughing water 
which see that each garden and lawn along the 
way is properly irrigated, and then they hasten on 
to spread their wealth of moisture upon the broad 
bosom of the valley beyond. 

On our arrival at the depot we found none of 
the brethren in waiting. We had neglected to 
wire them at the proper time as to the particular 
train on which we might be expected, and not 
knowing the precise hour of our departure they 
had been unable to calculate the time of our 
arrival. Entering the bus, therefore, we presently 
found ourselves comfortably housed in the best 
hotel. 


CHAPTER II. 


W HILE Standing in the hotel office I observed 
old Brother Sandrick passing by on the 
sidewalk in front. I had met the old brother dur- 
ing my former visit to this place; and I now 
hastened to the door and hailed him. He halted 
on hearing his name pronounced, and turning half 
way around and leaning forward upon his cane, 
looked at me a moment before recognition. Pres- 
ently recognizing me, he gasped aloud : “ Well ! ” 
at the same time tossing back his head and should- 
ers and throwing up both hands in a manner that 
was calculated to suggest mock courtesy. But it 
was not so intended, as I have since learned ; sim- 
ply a way the old gentleman had of passing him- 
self off. He was about seventy years old and 
quite gray. It was not to say a cold day, but the 
old man wore a long ragged overcoat of coarse, 
hand-me-down material, gathered tightly about the 
loins by a leathern belt with a heavy iron buckle 
which gave him a kind of rag-bag appearance. 

As I approached him with hand extended, he 
shifted his cane to his left hand which, as usual, 
also held his covered tin pail, and gave me his 

( 15 ) 


16 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


right, at the same time repeating, “Well, well, 
well ! ” but said no more. 

I said with some enthusiasm as I shook his 
hand: “Well, Brother Sandrick, we’re here ! ” 

He replied with a smirk which was no doubt 
intended to impress me with his profundity ; “ But 
we were here first ” 

“ That reminds me. Brother Sandrick, of what I 
have heard from some of the brethren.” 

“ What have you heard ? ” he asked. 

“That you have ministered in sacred things, 
yourself,” I explained. But perceiving that he 
didn’t understand, I went on ; “I have heard from 
some of the brethren that you have preached some 
yourself.” 

“ Well, yes ; somewhat. I organized the church 
in this town seventeen years ago, and have preached 
for it, you might say, without money and without 
price ever since.” 

We had, in the meantime, become seated in 
chairs in front of the hotel; and without volun- 
teering further information as to whether or 
not the church had been blessed under so much 
of his preaching, he proceeded with a touch 
of bitterness in his tone: “But, four or five 
years ago a few aristocrats got into the church 
here, bringing their new-fangled ideas along with 
them, and then, ‘ Oh ! we must have a pastor ; we 
must have a pastor, like the denominations. 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


17 


or we’ll never prosper.’ This was all carried on 
over my head, and I had nothing to do with it. 
I did have something to say against it, though. 
I said to brother Sodders : ‘ The church is finan- 
cially weak. There’s enough of us right here in 
the church to preach to all the people that come 
out on the Lord’s day. For one, I am willing to 
take my turn and not ask any pay for it, either.’ 
I then told brother Sodders to announce that I 
would talk to the people the next Lord’s day; 
but he didn’t do it. I suppose he was in favor of 
the pastor fod-der-rol, too.” 

It didn’t occur to me at that moment, but it did 
after I came to be better acquainted with all the 
parties, that brother Sodders’ reason for not mak- 
ing the announcement, as above, was probably 
because he wanted to do the preaching himself. 

‘‘Well, was a pastor called at that time?” I 
asked. 

“Yes; they called him, if that’s the way to 
speak it. At least they got him, and then got rid 
of him.” And as he said this he leaned forward 
in the chair in which he awkwardly sat, and which 
he seemed scarcely to fit, and struck a harder 
blow with his cane than ever upon the stone 
pavement, which said to me, “ It was done ; well 
done ; and I had a hand in it, and am ready for 
another job of the same kind ! ” 

After a moment or two, during which neither of 
2 



HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


19 


US spoke, he slowly raised his head and looking at 
me with averted glance, asked : “And may I he 
so inquisitive as to ask what you are going to do 
here ? ” 

“ Serve as pastor of our church here, of course,’^ 
I replied. 

“ Humph ! That’s news to me. But then I am 
an old fogy, and it wasn’t worth while to consult 
me. Members of this church have died and been 
buried up there on the hill without my knowing 
anything about it till after it was all over. 

“But, may I further ask who’s been most 
active in bringing you here ? It was Brother Sod- 
ders of course, though.” 

“ Yes, F. M. Sodders,” I said, reaching into my 
pocket and handing him the letter purporting to 
be the official call by the church and subscribed 
by F. M. Sodders as Clerk. 

The old man dipped into the letter and read 
without the assistance of spectacles a few moments 
in silence. Suddenly raising his head he ex- 
claimed: “Just what I expected to find! This 
man Sodders, along with lots of other tom foolery, 
says here in conclusion : ‘ I am convinced, brother 
May brook, that you are the very man we need here 
in Hodon to lead us to grandest heights of vic- 
tory. And should you see fit to accept this call, 
you can rest assured of my loyal support so long 
as you may choose to remain amongst us as our 
pastor.’ ” 


20 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


“Bosh ! ” he ejaculated as he handed the letter 
back. “ Now do you want me to make a 
prophecy ? 

“You have that privilege,” said I. 

“ Then I prophesy that this man Sodders will be 
the very first man to turn against you. Remember 
that I said so when it comes to pass.” 

I expressed no doubt as to the accuracy of the 
old man’s prediction, though, to tell the truth, I 
was very skeptical. I could only have wished at 
the time that every member bf the church at 
Hodon had pledged the friendship and shown the 
interest in Christianity that Brother Sodders had 
done. But desiring to conciliate, and if possible 
make a friend of Brother Sandrick at the very 
beginning, I imagined I could best do this by 
causing him to realize that I was equal to the 
emergency. Accordingly, I began to speak in a 
modest way as to how my labors in the Grospel 
had been blessed in other places farther east, when, 
all of a sudden, the old brother was seized with a 
bodily paroxysm which cut short my discourse 
through the fear that I had for his physical health. 
I was not long, however, in taking in the situation. 
Unwilling to hear of preaching which himself had 
not done, or at least of labors performed by another 
preacher more abundant and blest than his own 
had been, he had suddenly struck an attitude of 
playfulness towards our little Jew which, as yet 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


21 


unable to walk, had crept to us and now stood 
supported by my chair. What he had done was 
to turn his attention suddenly to the child and 
roll a lozenge of white peppermint candy on the 
ground before it, and then looking at it in as- 
sumed surprise, exclaim meanwhile under his 
breath: “Wh! Wh ! Wh!’’ just loud enough 
to extinguish any further persistency on my part 
to press my point. 

I did not at this first time understand this con- 
duct of the old man and its purpose, as above 
stated, but I came to understand it afterwards ; for 
it was many times repeated under similar circum- 
stances in our own home. The candy was always 
fiavored with peppermint ; white, and of lozenge 
shape. He was never known to carry any other 
kind. And then when one was rolled, it was 
always attended with an owlish gravity and assum- 
ed surprise, but especially with such bodily con- 
tortion as to bend his body quite double, whether 
sitting or standing. 

After this conversation with brother Sandrick, I 
joined my wife in our upper rooms in the hotel, 
not with a heavy heart, but with the first feel- 
ing of discouragement in entering upon the 
work at Hodon. I gathered from him that he 
regarded my presence in the church as an intru- 
sion ; and I reasoned . that if there were others in 
the church who shared his views and feelings, I 


22 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


niiglit safely count on failing of tlieir sympathy 
and support, as my predecessor had done. I said 
nothing about the conversation to Mrs. Maybrook, 
except that I had seen one of the brethren ; that he 
had not invited us to his home ; that the most of 
our families were attending a kind of agricultural 
fair close to town, and that some of them would 
probably call for us later in the afternoon. We had 
nothing to do but wait. While doing so, we divid- 
ed our attention between bal>y and the high plank 
fence on the opposite side of the street. This was 
the only prospect from our window, except a greasy 
“ slap-up ’’ which stood at the rear of a butcher’s 
shop and which was doing service as a smoke- 
house, judging from the smoke that slowly reeked 
from its numerous small apertures. 

The plank fence, apparently, had been used as 
a bill-board for a long time ; and in comparison 
with the smoke-house would have possessed some 
momentary interest for us, had it just then dis- 
played anything like fresh paper. But it appeared, 
on the contrary, to have been long in disuse ; and 
so much of the last paper used had disappeared 
that it was not easy to determine what had been 
last advertised. The last portion of a word com- 
posed of large red display letters had been torn 
off, leaving the three first letters, “SAG.” Further 
down and to the right were some large blue letters 
preserved intact, which spelled out the words. 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


23 


‘‘ INDIAN OIL.” From this last, added to what 
we had previously known of this same Indian 
Medicine show, we were able to supply the letters 
missing from the word first mentioned, and to 
read it, “ SAGWA ! ” 

Though this matter was thus settled, we could 
not be wholly rid of it; for the letters which formed 
these words were so large and highly colored that 
our eyes could not range out of the window with- 
out seeing and being reminded by them, again and 
again. At length Mrs. Maybrook was enabled to 
wholly divert attention to another, but scarcely 
less pleasant refiection : “ There’s .‘Annie Rooney,’ 
again,” she exclaimed. 

“ Sure enough ! ” I said, as the whistler hurriedly 
passed along the sidewalk under our window. It 
was, in like manner, east, where we had first heard 
this then popular air ; and mosquito-like, it had 
followed us until that moment. Wherever our 
train had stopped for any considerable time, or at 
whatever hotel we happened to be quartered for 
the night, of a sudden a strain of “Annie Rooney ” 
would be recognized by us as familiar amongst the 
hundred other strange noises. The little song had 
happened to possess a measure of that ephemeral 
merit which for a little time takes a strong hold on 
the popular mind, and having been sprung upon 
the whole country at the same time, it was like 
trying to be rid of one’s own shadow to attempt to 


24 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


run away from it. And thus, from having nothing 
more profitable to engage our attention, there had 
intruded upon our thought matters which were not 
wholly pleasant from being connected with other 
days and scenes thereafter destined to become 
largely a dead past to us. 

About five o’clock in the afternoon brother Har- 
dencase and family, returning from the fair, called 
for us and drove us in their carriage to their own 
home. 


CHAPTER HI. 


T heee months had now elapsed since our ar« 
rival at Hodon. During this time several 
things had occurred in connection with our newly 
found home. These things, of course, could be of 
no particular interest to the world at large, but 
they were of considerable importance to us in the 
sense that a good or bad beginning is always im- 
portant in any undertaking. 

We were hospitably entertained by the Harden- 
cases until the following week, or until we had 
found a home of our own. Brother and sister 
Hardencase were enthusiastic professors, un- 
learned and intensely bigoted. This last was 
especially applicable to the husband. Sister 
Hardencase was possessed of a yielding nature, 
although, as we have said, was enthusiastic in all 
that she deemed distinctive in our plea. Old 
“Foddy’’ Hardencase, as he was called, on the 
contrary, was intensely bigoted. Were he to have 
been always judged by his talk, the invariable 
conclusion, I think, would have been that he en- 
tertained no hope, or desire, even, for the salva- 
tion of any souls other than those of our own com- 


26 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


munion. In fact, from hearing him talk, myself, 
I doubt if he reflected that there were more than a 
few dozen people whose names did not appear 
upon our own church rolls. When he arose to 
speak in the social meeting, he invariably took 
the New Testament as his theme, and waving it 
aloft, would exclaim: “I’m a gwine to tell ye 
jist how it is. They,” meaning the denomina- 
tions, “must come to the Book, or there’s no show 
for ’em. What does this Book say? It says, 
‘ Bepent and be baptized, and ye shall receive the 
gift of the Holy Sperit.’ They’ve not repented, 
and they’ve not been baptized, neither. If they’d 
jist repent, they’d be baptized! They argy that 
they’ve been baptized, but you can’t find it in the 
Book; it’s not thar ! ” And then striking a down- 
ward blow with the heavy sheep-bound volume in 
his right hand, as though hitting all sectarianism 
plump in the forehead, he would loudly exclaim, 
“ If they can’t stand up against the Truth, let’ em 
, go down ! ” 

To show still further how extremely narrow and 
hide-bound the old brother was, I will here give 
the scope of the first prayer I heard him make, 
and which we were doomed to hear weekly for an 
indefinite future. 

Falling upon his knees, his right hand clutch- 
ing the “Book,” and hanging over the top of the 
pew, he broke out suddenly : “ O Lord, we thank 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


27 


Thee for the revelation which Thou hast given us 
in this Book ; that when the Day of Pentecost was 
fully come, the disciples was all assembled 
together in an upper chamber where prayer was 
wont to be made, when suddenly a sound came 
from heaven as a rushin’, mighty wind, and filled 
all the house where they was a settin’, and they 
was all filled with the Holy Sperit, and com- 
menced to speak to the assembled people as the 
Sperit gave ’em utterance; and when the people 
was piurced to the heart and said, ‘Men and 
bruthren, what must we do to be saved?’ the 
apostles didn’t strain at a gate and swallow a 
cable, as the false prophets do now-a-days, but 
they unsheathed the old Jerusalem blade, and an- 
swered, ‘Repent and be baptized, and ye shall 
receive the gift of the Holy Sperit ! ’ Amen.” 

The Hardencases were well-to-do people, living 
a kind of retired farm life in their substantial 
brick residence on the outskirts of the city, the 
only other occupants of their home being their 
widowed daughter, Hester Yane, and her ten-year- 
old daughter. There remains much to be said of 
Hester Yane, hereafter, in the course of this narra- 
tive. Suffice it to say now, that she was in the 
matronly prime of splendid womanhood, rich, cul- 
tured, beautiful. Tall and graceful as the willow, 
with perfectly chiseled features and majestic poise 
of head. Denver had been their home until the 


28 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


death of her husband, when, as report went, on 
his death-bed he bound his wife in writings not to 
marry again, as the condition on which she should 
inherit his fortune of some fifty thousand dol- 
lars. Hester was dashing and venturesome in 
society, and withal, had inherited too much of her 
father’s passionate, stubborn nature to permit of a 
harmonious residence of^the two families under 
the same roof. 

“Hester is exactly like her father,” one had 
been heard to remark. 

“ The exact spit of old Foddy,” was also heard. 
And report had it that the language which was 
sometimes made use of under the Hardencase roof 
sounded more like anything else than the speech 
of angels. 

The house which we had selected for a parson- 
age, and in which we had come to be installed, 
was a curious specimen of architecture, and had 
rather a curious history. It originally consisted 
of only two rooms, located upon the bank of 
Grace Creek, before alluded to, which conducted 
the water from Grace Canyon through the city 
and along on its life-giving mission to the broad 
valley beyond. Subsequently, the house had had 
a kind of cell-growth — not heavenward, for this 
would have afforded us the convenience of a sec- 
ond, or upper story, but up and down the Creek, 
and the newly-added cells, like the first, had been 






' .• 




HESTER VANE. 


( 29 ) 




30 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


each a single story in height, and with ceiling so 
low in some places as to utterly forbid my stand- 
ing at my full height. This long, narrow row of 
flat sheds had been built by, and had been 
the home of, the most notorious infidel that this 
place had ever known. In these dreary little 
rooms he lived, poisoned the minds of his wife 
and children, and died,^ finally, without hope. 
Still, his wife and daughters must have possessed 
considerable refinement, judging from patches of 
blue grass and flowering shrubs in the cramped- 
up little yard in front of the house, and the vine- 
trailed railing of the miniature bridge over Grace 
Creek in the rear. 

I had now met with and preached to the little 
band of brethren a few times, but not till we 
had come to be settled in our own home did 
I commence in earnest to take an inventory of 
the afiairs of the church. As the most conspicu- 
ous feature, possibly from its unsightliness, I first 
took into consideration the house, which was of 
soft brown stone, such as is quarried in great 
abundance in the near vicinity. Unless matched 
with stone of a lighter color so as to break the 
monotony, a house built of this material has a 
slovenly and dirty appearance, somewhat like the 
sod-house, and appears old when really new. One 
thousand dollars had been put into this unsightly 
building several years before, and as the tower 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


31 


(built from the ground up against the front of the 
building, and which was of no earthly use) em- 
braced within itself about one-fourth of the 
material, it is reasonable to infer that about one- 
fourth of the amount had gone into it. 

I could discover the names of no more than 
about seventy-five members in all, and several of 
these had not permitted their names to be en- 
rolled because they considered it to be of no ad- 
vantage to them to be affiliated with so many 
worldly-minded and indifferent church members. 
If the finances of the church had been running on 
any kind of a system at all, it had been, certainly, 
a kind of “ how-not-to-do-it ” system, for nothing 
had been accomplished. 


•CHAPTER lY. 


T MY very first convenience I called^ at the 



home of each of onr families to determine 
their stage of family lifef'and the estimation in 
which the church and church membership were 
held by them. As a result of such Visitation, I 
was bound to admit that I found room for vast 
improvement in both these respects. Few there 
were who did not feel great freedom in criticising 
human nature when embodied in others than 
themselves. I noted that such criticism was, as a 
general thing, most severe in the homes of our 
poorest families. Was the law of the survival of 
the fittest at work, and was such criticism a re- 
action against the operation of such law ? It was, 
at least, quite safe to say that it was all unchris- 
tian, and had sprung out of a low grade of spir- 
itual life. There is room in this place for only a 
few illustrations. 

One afternoon I had followed out the direction 
for finding the home of one of our poorest families 
by the name of Breeze. I found a little, old, one- 
story, one-room slap-up,” with walls the thick- 
ness of a single plank, and black on the outside 
from the action of the sun, smoke and wind- 


( 33 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


33 


driven dust, and on the inside from smoke and 
grease. Regardless of streets and alleys, it was 
situated on a natural drain, which fact had, no 
doubt, conduced to the health of the family. The 
slanting approach to this miserable home was 
strewn with feathers, old tin cans, and refuse of all 
kinds that had been fought off from the front of 
the house apparently with the single purpose of 
getting it outside the door. There were needed 
only a few human bones to impress one that he 
was approaching the abode of man-eating human 
beings. The door of the miserable structure was 
standing open, and piled-up horse manure sup- 
plied the place of a foundation. Arriving within 
a few steps of the door, I was obliged to note care- 
fully where I placed my feet, and, finally, to 
spring over quite a space that had become deeply 
sodden with slops. Rapping upon the door, the 
only immediate response I received was the sullen 
bark of a large and fierce-looking dog, whose 
slumbers I had disturbed, and who now came 
toward me from the corner of the house with 
raised bristles and measured steps. Just then I 
was rejoiced to see a lady, who proved to be sister 
Breeze, hastening towards me from a neighboring 
house, at the same time shouting at the dog to be 
gone. ' 

‘‘Sister Breeze,’’ I said, after I had learned 

that it was indeed she, and the dog had slunk be- 
3 


34 


HOT FOR 'THE PASTOR. 


hind the house, “ I’m your new pastor. I’m hunt- 
ing up my church members, that I may see them 
in their own homes and become well acquainted 
with them.” 

^She made no further reply than to say that she 
recognized me from having seen me at a distance 
during my former visit to Hodon. And then, sud- 
denly realizing the obligation to lead the way and 
invite the pastor into her miserable home, the 
poor woman appeared, momentarily, crushed. 
Noting it all, I pitied her from my innermost heart. 
Leading the way into the cheerless room, she 
offered me a rickety, splint-bottomed chair. I 
thanked her as I received it, and sat down upon it 
as though I had never been accustomed to any- 
thing better. As a result of throwing a large part 
of my weight upon the back part of the chair, a 
portion of it gave way with a loud crash, which 
caused her to throw up both hands in affright. 
Endeavoring to make as little of the accident as 
possible, I proceeded to ask about the other mem- 
bers of the family. From that I ventured to the 
subject of religion, and asked, “Sister Breeze, 
why haven’t I seen you out at our services ? ” 

She now raised her eyes to a point midway 
upon the wall before her, and slowly but firmly 
replied: “Well, I’ll just tell you why. When 
we lived down on the south side, a year or two 
ago, I received a note one day from one of the 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR 


35 


prominent sisters of the church notifying me to 
keep my children home from Sunday-school and 
church, as they weren’t dressed well enough to be 
seen at such places. And it was no one else than 
sister Lucre, either. I told my husband about it 
when he came home that evening, and he said I 
could do as I pleased, but if he was in my place 
he’d never be seen in that church again; and I 
never have been.” 

‘‘If sister Lucre wrote that note, she did wrong, 
— naade a great mistake,” I said. “ Still, sister 
Breeze, it really seems to me that you ought not 
to hold the entire church responsible for a wrong 
which one member may have committed.” 

The poor woman appeared to feel the force of 
this remark, and to realize the weakness of the 
position she had taken, and without making a 
reply, or^rising, even, she commenced breaking 
sunflower stalks for burning in her old cracked 
cook- stove at her elbow. As she dropped the 
lengths, one after another, upon the almost extin- 
guished embers, she remarked that they had just 
run out of cobs. Such a luxury as coal in that 
household, it seemed, was not to be thought of. 
Arising to take my departure, she really urged 
me not to go, just then. It really seemed that she 
had come to be more than half convinced that she 
had been in the wrong in the matter of the. note 
mentioned, and desired to be wholly convinced by 


36 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


further argumentation. In other words, her wom- 
anly fidelity to her Lord prompted her to be true 
to him. The matter was further discussed ; and 
ere I had taken my leave, she as good as promised 
t^> come back with her children and resume her 
old place in the church and Sunday-school. 

A couple of squares from this home — if home it 
could be called — in the same part of town, I en- 
tered the home of another of bur poor families by 
the name of Saunders. Though this house ap- 
peared to be better constructed than the one just 
mentioned, and presented an air of more comfort, 
there was, nevertheless, the same sloppy appear- 
ance upon the outside. When I entered, I found 
Grandma Saunders, the mother of brother Saun- 
ders — a very old lady — a maiden sister of brother 
Saunders, besides his son, a little red-headed boy 
of about five summers. 

No explanation was volunteered accounting for 
the absence of sister Saunders, wife of brother 
Saunders, and but little was said about him. 
Considering the time of day, I could readily ac- 
count for his absence, but could not so readily 
account for that of the wife. After several allu- 
sions to sister Saunders, all of which failed to call 
out an explanation, I ventured to ask outright as 
to the whereabouts of the sister. 

“She just went across the way; she’ll be back 
after ’while,” was the answer of the maiden sister. 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


37 


“No, she didn’t! She shet herself np in the 
closet!” chimed in the little red-headed boy, in 
the face of several shs-s-s-s, and against the 
thrown-back palm of the maiden sister’s hand. 

“ She did, too ! ” he quickly repeated in a much 
louder tone, impatient of contradiction. 

Just then the closet door, which opened into the 
room where we were sitting, slightly trembled, 
rattled, and theb suddenly opened, when out came 
sister Saunders, with a kind of hang-dog expres- 
sion on her face, affirming meanwhile, 

“ He always did do that ! ” which suggested 
that this had not been her first flight to the closet. 
Then she went on to explain that she had seen me 
coming across the vacant lot and had taken me 
for a book agent. Before taking my departure, 
however,^e admitted that she had recognized me 
after I had entered the room — had peered through 
a crack at me, I presume ; but she didn’t explain 
why she didn’t come out at that point to receive 
me. 

As I walked in the direction of the next home 
to be visited, I mused upon sister Saunders’ em- 
barrassment, and more than half pitied the poor 
woman. I asked myself, “But for the lack of lit- 
tle red-headed boys, how many similar scenes 
there would be in the life of every pastor.” Pres- 
ently I came to where a noisy parrot was sus- 
pended in its cage in the sunlight, that portion of 


38 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


the house jutting up close to the sidewalk. Ad- 
dressing the bird as though it had been a child, I 
asked, 

‘‘Does Polly want a cracker?” 

The bird did not immediately answer, but hook- 
ed its beak over its roost, and commenced rapidly 
going through the usual gymnastics, meanwhile 
saying in a low tone, as I have seen bashful chil- 
dren do, “Does Polly want a cracker? Does 
Polly want a cracker?” Moving on, presently, I 
said, “ Good-bye, Polly ! ” The bird made no re- 
ply whatever, until I got some distance away, and 
had come to think that this was the last of the 
matter, when, “ Good-bye, Polly ! pet of the house, 
where’ve you been? come again, we’ll all have 
tea, when no one else is near,” came back in loud, 
rasping, and — I could not help thinking — taunting 
tones, which was kept up until I had turned the 
corner and got out of hearing. 

I was now nearing a house concerning which I 
was not quite certain. That is, those who directed 
me were, themselves, not quite certain whether or 
not this particular family, though once our own 
people, desired to be considered as still identified 
with us. I found the wife at home, and there be- 
ing no fire in the sitting-room, she invited me into 
the kitchen, which was warm from the cook-stove. 
Everything in this home was plain, but neat, and 
bespoke industry and thrift. I seated myself at 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


39 


one side of the cook-stove, and the sister resumed 
her easy chair directly in front. She had evi- 
dently been employed at cutting carpet-rags when 
disturbed by my knock ; and now, having seated 
herself again, was preparing to resume the pro- 
cess and — do most of the talking. Suddenly lift- 
ing both feet to the stove-hearth, thus converting 
the knees into a kind of lap-board, and having 
nervously smoothed the cloth by a counteracting 
movement of both hands, she suddenly thrust in a 
pair of bright shears, and snipped as she talked. 

“ Yes she said, in allusion to my question at 
the door, “we don’t deny the name; but it has 
been nineteen^years, now, since we came west, and 
we have never put in our letters. Bro. Newcomer 
wanted us to do so when he preached here, but we 
concluded not to do it. Besides” — 

“But,” I interposed, intending to administer a 
slight rebuke, “your family is standing before 
this community in an unorganized capacity, and 
for this reason is not in a position for doing near 
so much for the cause of Christ,” — 

“Well, the fact is,” she quickly interposed, 
“we’re not very well off; and we’ve talked the 
matter over, and concluded that if we were to con- 
nect ourselves with any of the churches we’d have 
to do our part towards defraying the expenses of 
the church, and so we just thought we’d stand on 
the outside.” 


40 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


Quickly seizing the opportunity, I again sought 
to administer a mild rebuke for the confessed self- 
ishness ; but before I could get the thought formed 
and before her mind, she was again leading the 
conversation. Having taken a sudden dive into ^ 
the remote past, she was now raking over the dry 
bones and conjuring up the dust of dead rela- 
tives, and causing many generations of them to 
troop before me in solemn procession. Somehow, 

I begun to realize that I wasn’t near as good a 
conversationalist as I had sometimes thought. 
Either that, or my tongue was unusually thick 
that afternoon, and that of the sister unusually 
long and thin. 

Hence, I decided to be impetuous in the manner 
of my leave-taking, and suddenly arising, I 
quickly started for the door, trusting that she 
would consider this an eccentricity and not be 
offended. 


CHAPTER Y. 



NDER all circumstances, I concluded, after 


LJ conversing with Mrs. Maybrook, that the 
church stood in need of nothing so much, just 
then, as a successful protracted meeting; for a 
successful protracted meeting meant a large num- 
ber of conversions, and conversions meant a re- 
vival of interest, generally. Accordingly, into a 
meeting I plTmged with all my powers of body, 
mind and soul, and labored at great risk to my 
health for a whole month. I ran the meeting dur- 
ing the first two weeks in the face of very great 
indifference on the part of our membership, and 
with little encouragement in the way of conver- 
sions. But with the beginning of the third week 
the interest began to awaken ; sinners commenc- 
ed fiocking home, and the members were 
thinking and talking about the meeting. By the 
end of the fourth week the town had come to be 
stirred, religiously, as it had never been before, 
and there were few persons not Christians who 
were not caused to think on their soul’s eternal 
interests. By the last night of the meeting, eighty- 
eight persons had confessed their faith in the 
King of kings, and surrendered to His authority. 


( 41 ) 


42 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


The last evening of the meeting had arrived. The 
house was crowded, and the services commenced. 
On this evening I selected as my theme, “The 
Almost Christian,” because I had good reasons 
for believing that many had been brought to this 
point, as a result of these meetings, and I desired 
to make the most of the good impressions already 
made. 

Selecting King Agrippa’s e^tclamation to Paul, 
“Almost thou persuadejjpt me to be a Christian,” I 
back-tracked, so to speak, upon the words, begin- 
ning with the last word first. On the name, 
“ Christian,” I showed that the center of a system 
gives name to the system, e. g.; Solar, Lutheran. 
Hence, Christ, Christian. “ To be,” involves that 
you may be. “Me,” a personal matter; cannot 
be done for you or me. “Persuade,” by motives. 
“Almost,”, yet you may never be. 

On this last I dwelt with all my powers of illus- 
tration and exhortation, pleading with such as 
had come so near to the Kingdom and the Name 
as to be almost Christians that they should, then 
and there, without postponement, make the most 
of the good work which God’s Spirit had wrought 
within their hearts by actually deciding for 
Christ. 

The exhortation ended, and the song of invita- 
tion arose. And such fervor ! It was as though 
the “one and the same spirit,” which has just em- 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


43 


ployed the preacher’s voice in pleading with poor 
sinners, was now employing hundreds of other 
voices as full of yearning for the same purpose. 
Twelve persons struggled forward through the 
audience and gave me their hands, with the tear of 
penitence falling. Joy filled every heart, and at 
my suggestion the brethren made their way to the 
front without much regard to order, that they 
might express their congratulations to each of the 
new converts by a warm pressure of the hand, and 
a “ God bless you ! ” 

Above the shuffling of the feet, above the song 
that was being sung while this was going on, was 
heard a sob. Then another, and next a moan, 
evidently from a lady. All eyes were attracted 
to where she was excitedly wedging her way to 
the front through the slowly-moving audience. 
Some person hearing her sobs and moans, and in- 
dignant at being jammed, exclaimed loud enough 
for her to hear, “ That woman’s crazy ; she ought 
to be taken out of here ! ” But the woman heeded 
not. With tearful eyes, and still louder sobs, she 
kept on crowding forward with more and more 
energy until she had reached the front; then, 
throwing her arms about the neck of one of the 
men who had gone forward and confessed the 
Lord, she moaned out as the song concluded: 
“O Pottsy, Pottsy! is this really you? How 
glad I am! O blessed Lord! At last, at last 


44 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


my prayers are answered, and Pottsy has 
come home!” And then, as if speaking partly 
to herself and partly to those around her, the poor 
mother hysterically continued: “Somebody said 
es one of them that went forward was Potts ; and 
I strained my eyes and said, ‘Why, that looks 
like Pottsy but oh ! I couldn’t believe my own 
eyes, for I didn’t know that the dear boy was 
thinking of taking sech a step. And then I looked 
again and said, ‘ Shorley that is Pottsy 1 ’ and then 
I started right for him.” 

These unusual demonstrations by the excited 
mother afforded some amusement for such charac- 
ters as are always in attendance for no good upon 
revival services ; but on this evening few such 
characters were present. After briefly reviewing 
the obstacles with which the meeting had had to 
contend, the number of conversions and other re- 
sulting benefits, I announced that the series had 
come to an end. Then, addressing myself espe- 
cially to the converts, I earnestly and tenderly 
exhorted them, “ to cleave unto the Lord with full 
purpose of heart.” .Finally, while the audience 
stood, I breathed a prayer, with uplifted hands, 
that God would keep his own unto the day of 
complete redemption, and the crowd slowly dis- 
persed. 


CHAPTER YL 


T he next morning, after a late breakfast, Mrs. 

Maybrook and I lingered at the table and 
talked over the events and results of the meeting, 
in particular those of the preceding evening. I 
could not rid my mind of the Potts scene ; of the 
mother’s demonstrations of joy. 

“It was an odd scene,” observed Mrs. Maybrook. 
“ So much like acting, and yet so evidently genu- 
ine through and through.” 

“ Genuine, of course,” said I. “ I am not troub- 
led on that score ; but what troubles me is, who 
and what is Potts ? The odd manner in which the 
mother expressed her congratulations has not 
only tended to excite my curiosity on this point, 
but Hester Yane’s manner while extending the 
hand has still further heightened my curiosity. I 
doubt if anybody else observed it besides myself, 
but being near, I noticed that she blushed deeply 
as she extended her hand to Potts, and, instead of 
looking into his face, her head quickly fell for- 
ward, till her face rested in her left hand, when I 
noticed the rush of tears in her eyes. Could it 
be,” I continued, as a new idea occurred, “that 
she was overcome by the grip of the strong man’s 
hand?” 


( 45 ) 


46 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


“ I can easily believe it,” said Mrs. Maybrook ; 
‘‘ for it has been many a day since I have endured 
such agony as I did last evening when that man 
took hold of my hand.” 

And then I, too, remembered that it had been 
the strong, massive hand of the same person clos- 
ing upon my own that had caused me to wince 
and suddenly withdraw my hand the evening be- 
fore. Nothing further was said on the subject, 
and I selected an easier chair in which I could 
recline. Resting my feet upon a footstool, I pre- 
pared myself for enjoying to the fullest extent 
that delicious consciousness of freedom which 
relaxation brings to the worked-down preacher 
after a night of sound slumber has succeeded 
the burden of a long meeting, just closed. 
Notwithstanding it was late in the morning, 
the sun was just struggling over the purple- 
rimmed mountains to the east, and the great orb 
of molten gold was, for the moment, half obscured 
by a small saw-tooth-like peak. As a living 
monster whose liberty might have been interfered 
with, would have thrown out its long horns, or 
tentacles, in anger and' self-defense, so this molten 
nucleus was darting forth its distributed beams ; 
and as the nucleus slowly moved over the point of 
obstruction, the great golden spokes slowly re- 
volved till one of them fell upon our window and 
broke upon the carpet of the room where we were 





“The tea-kettle was singing its song of home and peace from its perch on 
the cook-stove. “ (47) 


Mi 


48 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


sitting. The tea-kettle was singing its song of 
home and peace from its perch on the cook-stove 
in the kitchen, and little Jew was playing with 
the half-open door only a few feet from my chair. 
The little fellow had never as yet stood upon his 
feet, or made his first unassisted step. Having 
now, by means of the door, succeeded in lifting 
himself upon his yielding, chubby little feet, he 
was entitled to our whole attention. While hold- 
ing thus to the door, he seemed to have all confi- 
dence in his ability to stand, but, momentarily 
removing both hands from the door for some rea- 
son, this act, in itself, caused the door to move 
rather quickly on its hinges and away from the 
child. Seeming to but slowly comprehend the 
situation, he remained standing and looking at 
me for an instant, and then commenced laughing 
excitedly. Quickly extending both hands towards 
the little fellow, I pleadingly said, “Walk some 
to papa, please and he made two or three 
steps in my direction, and fell upon my arms 
I might add that “Jew” was not our child’s 
real name; but from being his mamma’s “pre- 
cious jewel,” and from being the possessor of a 
mass of closely-clinging dark curls, the Jew was, 
somehow, suggested, and this seemed to fit upon 
the little fellow better than his real name. 

In the midst of our congratulations and rejoicing 
over the wonderful feat of baby, which little Jew 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


49 


appeared to understand and appreciate, a knock 
was heard at the door. Throwing open the door, 
Brother Sandrick stood before us in all his sugges- 
tiveness of mock courtesy. In his right hand he 
held his cane, and in his left a covered tin pail. 
Some moments after I extended my hand, he 
slowly transferred his cane to his left hand, and 
then as slowly took my own, with a kind of owl- 
ish gravity, and continued standing, regardless 
of my repeated invitations to walk in and be 
seated. Getting ready, at length, he did so, plac- 
ing his cap and cane on one side of his chair, and 
his tin pail, which contained a nicely-dressed 
chicken, in Mrs. Maybrook’s hand, for which he 
received prompt payment. In this connection, I 
may as well remark that Brother Sandrick never, 
thereafter, came to our house unless he had some- 
thing in the line of eatables which he wanted to 
sell. After vainly waiting for the old brother to 
say some word of encouragement on the success of 
the meeting just closed, glancing at Mrs. May- 
brook, I suddenly inquired : 

“ Brother Sandrick, who and what is Potts ? ” 

The old brother’s chin was at this time resting 
gravely upon the crook of his cane, and before 
deigning a reply, and without raising his head, 
he pursed his lips, and drawing down his shaggy 
eyebrows till his eyes were concealed, bobbed his 


50 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


head up and down three times, accompanied each 
time with a jetting nasal hiss intended as ex- 
pressive of laughter. At length, slowly lifting 
his head, hut not looking at either of us, he said : 

“ Well, Potts is what would he called in Kansas 
or Nebraska a Prairie Bachelor.’’ 

“Where does he live, and what does he do?” 
I again asked, for I had learned nothing as yet 
that tended in the least to allay my curiosity. 

“ I think he lives on his claim in a dugout, three 
or four miles from town. That’s about all I know 
about him.” 

“But his mother,” interposed Mrs. Maybrook, 
who had been an interested listener to the conver- 
sation ; “ was not that his mother who made over 
him so on last evening ? Where does she live ? ” 

“ Here in town, I think.” 

Again my wife — this time in a meditative man- 
ner : 

“ She seemed to have great fondness for him on 
last evening ; why don’t sh^ live with her son ? ” 

“Well, now you’ve got me,” said the old man, 
resignedly. “ I can’t tell why she don’t stay out 
there and keep house for Potts, unless it’s because 
it’s so lonesome out there, and they ain’t got 
much of a house to keep; only a dugout, you 
know. Perhaps he wouldn’t live out there in that 
hole in the ground, either, if the law didn’t bind 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


51 


him to hold down his claim there a certain num- 
ber of years before he can prove up on it.” 

But I was destined soon to know the whole 
story, and from Potts himself. 


CHAPTER YIL 


HE day continued bright and almost cloudless 



1 until near noon, when the sky in a surpris- 
ingly short time became completely hidden from 
view by leaden skies which portended snow. Sure 
enough, snow soon commenced falling — almost 
vertically at first — ^for as yet there had been no 
wind to speak of. By half past three o’clock in 
the afternoon the dry ground was covered with 
several inches of loosely-packed snowflakes, the 
flakes preserving their individuality as so many 
downy feathers. 

All of a sudden Mrs. Maybrook, who had been 
standing at the window, called my attention to a 
distant rumbling sound which seemed not unlike 
the noise produced by a moving train of cars, or 
the approach of a hurricane. Arising and stand- 
ing by her side at the open window, we awaited 
developments. We had not long to wait. The 
disturbance, whatever it might prove to be, was 
evidently in Grace Canyon ; and as the great noise 
rolled down toward us from the deep-throated can- 
yon, the nearer it came the louder and more awful 
it seemed. At length rushing out of the canyon, 
the great wind bore down upon the town, picking 


( 53 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


53 


up leaves, scraps of paper and the numberless 
snowflakes, and bearing all upon its bosom like 
the onward march of a tidal wave. Other and 
counter-currents of wind, as it seemed from out of 
other canyons from different points of the com- 
pass, struck the town at about the same instant, 
bearing along with them their burden of snow- 
flake. Then these different winds, as it seemed, 
crossed one another’s path and commingled. They 
joined hands, and with cheeks powdered white by 
the myriad snowflakes of a genuine western ‘‘ bliz- 
zard,” they danced, and danced, and danced, not 
neglecting so much as even a single evolution of 
the dizzy maze, our door-yard serving for a dancing 
floor. As swirl the muddy waters of the Missouri, 
or, more nearly, as swirl the particles of dust and 
trash of all kinds up through the spiral funnel of 
the hot weather whirlwind, so the snowflakes that 
had that afternoon fallen upon our yard, and pos- 
sibly some of those, also, that had fallen upon 
hundreds of others, were quickly swished around, 
in, through, between and over the small shrubs and 
trees that grew in our yard. 

‘‘Four o’clock ! What will become of the children 
in the public schools!” I exclaimed under my 
breath, not thinking how or to whom I was speak- 
ing. “Four o’clock, and it is even now getting 
dark, and the blizzard not abating ; on the con- 
trary, increasing in ferocity.” Just then I was all 


54 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


but certain that I saw the muffled forms of two lit- 
tle school girls flit, spectral-like, along our side- 
walk. The rapidly-moving forms were seen through 
a snowy medium and were powdered white ; still, 
from the direction they came, and from the dinner- 
pail on the arm of the larger, I took them to be 
two little girls from the public school. What 
will become of the children in the public schools 
I again exclaimed ; and as I did so I looked again 
at wife. Our eyes met and then rested upon our 
own little Jew, who, wrapped in warm blankets, 
was sleeping soundly in his crib at our feet. 

At the very moment that we thus looked upon 
and contemplated the safety of our own household 
treasure, two little girls, aged respectively eight 
and thirteen, had become lost in an open fleld lit- 
tle more than a hundred yards away. Their 
teacher had imprudently dismissed them when 
four o’clock arrived, with the injunction to hasten 
homeward. But on reaching the open fleld through 
which their path lay, the blinding, piling snow 
into which they could see but little further than 
they could have seen into a mill stone, caused them 
to lose their way. At first they both began to cry ; 
but quickly the elder regained her composure as 
she came to realize her greater responsibility, and 
taking off her own wraps she put them upon her 
little sister. Amongst the many sorrowful results 
of the blizzard which were chronicled by the news- 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


56 


papers during the next few days, was the finding 
of the lifeless bodies of these two little girls. 
They were found lying close together in an open 
field ; were partially drifted over with snow, and 
their faces were turned to the ground. 

As I afterwards learned, these were the same 
two little girls that had passed our house at the 
time above mentioned. But to me — they are not 
dead ! Their lithe and graceful little forms fiit by 
our house until now, but never disappearing ; their 
pattering little feet on our sidewalk still I hear, 
but never less distinctly ! Since then I’ve traveled 
thousands of miles, and our home has been pitched 
on other streets of more populous cities. The 
wind-driven snows of many another blizzard, 
the darkness, cold and damp of many another 
wintry night have come and gone since then, but 
these two spectral-like little forms, seen through a 
snowy medium, with just enough glow of lip and 
cheek to make me all but certain that they were 
two little girls, — I see to-day as I saw them then ! 

The snow-storm continued through most of the 
night with slight abatement until morning com- 
menced to dawn. Then came the usual cloudless 
sunrise so characteristic of the great West. The 
wind had gone down awhile before dawn, thus per- 
mitting the snowflakes to again fall from the sky 
and settle back to the earth with a slight incrusta- 
tion on top. When the sun had at length strug- 


56 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


gled over the eastern range, his slanting pencils of 
light gleamed so brightly upon the frosted silver 
that everywhere covered the earth that our eyes 
were overpowered by the excessive brightness. 

Breakfast over, a loud but hesitating knock was 
heard at the door. Once, twice, thrice ; each time 
a single stroke only. As I opened the door, I 
recognized Potts standing before me; but unlike 
brother Sandrick, he did not remain standing. 
One, two, three long measured steps brought him 
inside where I was standing, and ere I was scarcely 
aware of what was taking place, the bones of my 
right hand were being forced together in an agony 
which I could adequately express at the time only 
by a sharp cry, accompanied by a quick jerk. 

I saw before me a man about forty years old, 
and five feet, six inches in height. His body was 
massive and well proportioned, and had come to 
be hardened as sinew from hard labor on the 
ranch. There was, also, a certain comeliness of 
form and nobility of countenance in the man, which 
the tan on the face and the poorly fitting work 
clothes could not wholly conceal. 


(57> 


POTTS. 



CHAPTER YIIL 


G ood morning, Brother and Sister Maybrook. 

I guess you remember Potts, who joined the 
last evening of the meeting ? ’’ 

I assured him that we did, at the same time 
offering him a seat, and telling him that I was 
truly glad he had come around as I desired to 
know more about him. Without appearing to 
notice the proffered chair, he continued : “I brought 
mother to town this morning, and as I’ve ung-ung- 
ung-ung an extra horse along with me, I thought 
you might like to get on and go out to my ranch 
and have a chicken hunt to-day. They’re badly 
rattled since the blizzard.” 

Poor fellow ! I saw at once as I looked down into 
his open, honest face, and frank blue eyes, that he 
had a thorn in the flesh — a serious stoppage in his 
speech that ha(1 a bad way of manifesting itself at 
the most critical point in his sentences, just as the 
thought in the sentence commenced to dawn upon 
the mind of the listener. Had it been otherwise ; 
had the infirmity always manifested itself after 
the thought of the sentence had come to be so 
formed as to be apparent to the listener, the 

listener, in this case, would often have been able 
( 58 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


59 


to help him out of his embarrassment by sug- 
gesting the proper word. Indeed, as I subse- 
quently learned, those well acquainted with him 
and the background of his usual conversation, 
quite frequently were enabled to do this. When I 
had come to be better acquainted with him, on my 
alluding to his infirmity in a delicate way, he 
told me that he experienced difficulty only in the 
pronunciation of words beginning with a vowel ; 
that he was most liable to stumble on his words at 
the opening of the conversation, especially with 
strangers. 

‘‘You say the chickens are rattled since the 
blizzard, brother — Potts?’’ I asked hesitatingly, 
as I had not as yet learned whether it was Potts 
something else, or something else Potts. 

“Yes, brother Maybrook; I don’t know where 
they all came from ; but as I brought mother into 
town this morning, I must have seen as many as 
a hundred in the tops of the timber ung-ng-ng-ng 
along Grace Creek he brought up very sud- 
denly, his face meanwhile flushing a deep red, as 
it always did when finding himself compelled to 
stammer in the presence of strangers. Turning to 
Mrs. Maybrook, I said : 

“My dear, I really feel inclined to accept his 
invitation. I am relaxing, you know, after the 
meeting. But should there be any enjoyment in 
the trip for you, I — I — really — ” 


60 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


“There! that will do;” she smilingly said. 
“Go ahead and I will not consider you selfish. 
But I really fail to perceive how the trip could 
bring me any pleasure, personally, as there will 
be no ladies there, and you will be out hunting all 
day.” 

On the contrary, I felt that I should greatly 
enjoy the freedom and expansion of the day in the 
open country, and that day in particular, so 
bright and crisp. My church work was well up ; 
in fact, ahead. “ No such meeting had ever before 
been held in Hodon,” was affirmed by many of 
the old members ; and as a preacher, I stood above 
par in their estimation. Old Brother Sandrick, 
had been heard to remark that himself, even, at 
times, had seen the flash of the Old Jerusalem 
blade. 

After less than an hour’s ride, we arrived at 
Potts’ dug-out on the “Potts Eanch,” as it was 
commonly called. The preparations for the hunt 
being made after our arrival at the dug-out, we 
soon found ourselves tramping over the bright 
snow and crashing through the crust at every step. 
The first thing I did after being fairly started, was 
to allow myself to become entrapped in a wolf’s 
den, something after the method we read of for 
catching wild elephants. The den opened upward 
and was filled with snow, which was largely cov- 
ered with tufts of dry grass and weeds, and I shall 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


61 


always think that Potts knew better when he sug- 
gested that I jump upon and frighten the game out 
of that mass of dry vegetation. For some time we 
had been skirting along the sloping bank of a 
broad and shallow draw, or dry branch, and had 
just come to the corner of an unfenced corn-field, 
when, whir-r-r-r ! whir-r-T-r ! whir ! whir-r-r-r r ! 
bang ! bang ! And then, results ; or, rather result ; 
for only one chicken had dropped. Cause: I 
had carried the gun. Potts had played ignorance 
in the handling of guns, and had strongly 
insisted that I should do the shooting. Still, 
I couldn’t help thinking that if he had had a 
gun, there would have been more results. At least 
a dozen and a half of these beautiful partridge-like 
fowls had just surprised us by their sudden pres- 
ence and lightning-like disappearance. For a few 
hundred yards they fiew almost in straight, but 
somewhat divergent, lines in the same general 
direction, and then in a scattering way, dropped 
down through the snow-crust. Following them up, 
although they must have distinctly heard our 
crashing footfalls, they suffered us to come so 
close to them that we could see the holes in the 
crust in which they were hiding. Then there 
would be the same whir-r-r-r-r ! and, generally, the 
belated bang! bang! For the whir was always 
so sudden and unlooked for as^ in a measure, to 
paralyze me into a kind of passivity. 


63 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


And thus the most of the day was spent ; and 
as we bent our weary steps towards the dug-out, 
the small number of fowls in our bag, and the large 
number of empty shells in our belt, spoke too 
plainly of my lack of skill with the gun. On 
arriving at the dug out we were very tired — at least 
I was. Potts was accustomed to such vigorous use 
of his muscles; but, certainly, I had had more 
exercise for one day than was good for a man of 
sedentary habits to begin with. For this reason it 
wouldn’t do to think of going home that evening. 
Besides, we had had no dinner, and Potts must 
yet prepare our supper. Our supper was plain, 
but we were hungry, and it was eaten with a 
decided relish. It consisted of coffee, fried pork, 
milk, butter and good bread, for Potts had the 
wife of a neighbor employed to bake his bread. 

Supper over, we were too tired to talk much, 
and soon found our way to bed, where I slept 
soundly until the next morning. After another 
plain meal for breakfast, my companion and I 
drew our chairs up close to the warm cook-stove 
and commenced talking over the experiences of 
the day before. I had at last met with Potts, and 
had been intimately associated with him for a 
whole day. Unknown to himself, I had narrowly 
observed him during all this time, and while I 
was still in doubt as to the correctness of ]many of 
my conclusions, I had come to be satisfied of one 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


ea 

thing, namely, that his was a warmly-emotional 
nature and brim full of sentiment. I arrived at 
this conclusion, not simply from what I had seen 
of his mother and of his own contemplative air, 
but also from noting the drift of his conversation. 

“Potts,” I said, “there is something about you 
that I can’t quite make out. How a man of your 
intelligence and sensibilities can endure to live 
alone in this dug-out, and, in a measure, cut off 
from human associations, is the mystery.” 

“But, suppose a person had ung-ung-ung-ung 
always aspired to better things^ and they had 
been denied him ; then what?” he said with an air 
of mystery in his tone and look, which made me 
think that he was not averse to making a confi- 
dant of me. So I replied : 

“ My dear brother, if there has been such disap- 
pointment in your life as would afford you relief 
to disclose to me, and such as would do me good 
to hear, then do not hesitate to confide in me, as 
your pastor.” 

Evidently pleased at having an opportunity for 
indulging in the sentimental, and for living over 
again times and scenes that had grown tender and 
sweet with the passage of years, he took up the 
iron poker in his right hand, and resting one foot 
upon the hearth of the cook-stove, commenced 
speaking of his past life. I here give his story as 
nearly in his own words as possible, leaving out 
his occasional stammering on vowels. 


CHAPTER IX, 


I WAS I)orn and reared in an eastern state till I 
came to be a grown man. I early attended the 
district school, and with far more regularity than I 
should otherwise have done on account of a certain 
red-cheeked little maiden of about my own age 
and size who attended the same school. The first 
time I ever saw this little maiden I loved her, and 
loved her, too, with a passion as ardent and con- 
stant as I have ever been capable of exercising 
since. Yes, I proffered her my whole heart the 
first time I saw her, and without her wanting or 
asking for it. Indeed, there never was a time that 
we attended school together in that dear old 
school-house, that some other boy than myself 
didn’t receive more of her smiles than I — be- 
cause I stammered at times, I suppose. Hence 
when there came a day on which this particu- 
larly favored boy, for any reason, failed to put 
in his appearance at school, I naturally rejoiced, 
because at such times she was always most apt to 
be gracious towards me. I may truthfully say that 
there were other times, which occurred at rare in- 
tervals, when this little coquette, as the whim 

seized her, deigned to show me some encourage* 
( 64 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


65 


merit. One day I had been sitting by her side 
upon one of the long seats facing the stove. At 
her request I was assisting her on a difficult ex- 
ample in arithmetic. Our heads were bent for- 
ward over her slate, when, oh, rapturous moment ! 
she permitted our temples to meet. And thus 
time wore on till each of us had neared the 
age of sixteen — she each year growing more 
beautiful, and I more angular and homely. To 
come into her presence during these years was 
like coming into the presence of a full-blown rose- 
bush after a warm shower. Whatever she wore, 
whether it were a bit of ribbon, a checkered apron, 
or a linsey-woolsey gown, seemed to be so trans- 
formed that it came to be a costly fabric, and the 
very thing that was most becoming to her. Dur- 
ing all these years it was the same experience, 
over and over, with me. My passion was constant 
and steady, but encouraged by her only at rare in- 
tervals when the presence of more highly-favored 
boys didn’t cause her embarrassment. One after- 
noon there came to our school a handsome young 
fellow from the city, and from his familiarity with 
her we soon gathered that he was an old acquaint- 
ance of her family. He was about twenty-one, 
and quite well educated. Before it came his time 
to stand up and spell in our spelling contest that 
afternoon, we boys looked over his shoulder and 
were made to feel astonishment at the skill he 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


displayed in pencil-drawing. And when he finally 
stood up to spell, I distinctly remember that I was 
far more lost in admiration for his stylishly-cut 
suit of gray clothes, and erect posture while spell- 
ing, than for his ability to spell almost any word 
that might be pronounced. When the school was 
dismissed that afternoon, her cheeks appeared 
redder than usual, as, heedless of the other boys 
and girls, she eagerly walked by his side, and 
proudly, as it seemed, looked up into his face. 
As I have said, I had come to be accustomed to 
seeing her favors bestowed upon others ; and at 
least one other boy’s heart was caused to ache 
more than my own on this particular afternoon. 

“Our days in the district school at length came 
to an end, she still living at her grandfather’s, 
and making occasional visits to the city where her 
parents resided. To my surprise she entered upon 
no higher course of instruction. During these 
years out of school I saw her quite often, for our 
homes were not far apart. When we could be to 
ourselves, I was at times made to feel that I was 
making commendable progress, and to even hope 
that some day I might really succeed in gaining 
her affections and winning her for my wife. But 
then this wealthy city chap was in the way most of 
all. His visits at length grew into something like 
regularity, and, not to multiply words, they were 
married and went to live in the city. You can 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


67 


imagine what a blow this was to me. True, I had 
no claim on her ; and I could not be sure that she 
ever requited my love in the slightest degree. 
Still, I had lived in hope — baseless though it was — 
of gaining this girl some day for my wife. This 
desideratum I thought to be the one and only thing 
necessary to my complete happiness in this world. 
And now, to see her the wife of another ! I 
turned my back on the old home, and went to 
South America and enlisted as a common soldier. 
I cared not to live. Through this service I experi- 
enced many hair-breadth escapes ; yet it seemed 
that a strange fatality kept me alive. One day in 
a kind of guerilla warfare, we charged upon the 
enemy, who skillfully retreated and shielded him- 
self from our attack. All of a sudden it dawned 
upon our commander that we were being drawn 
into ambush, and he ordered us to retreat, which 
we hastily commenced to do ; but the enemy by a 
skillful flank movement made it possible for us to 
retreat in one direction only. Moving on in this 
direction, our second in command remarked : 

“ ‘ Colonel, we’ve made a mistake, hav’n’t we ? ’ 

“Biting his lips, our Colonel bitterly replied, 
‘ Yes.’ 

“ On we went, or rather were forced, till we three 
oflicers were driven into a pen. On discovering 
that we were penned, we hastily turned in the 
direction of the only point of exit — the opening 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


through which we had entered; but just at that 
moment, a brawny soldier thrust his bayonet 
across the entrance. Our arms were then rudely 
taken from us. A vicious-looking soldier, who ap- 
peared also to be an officer, with the help of two 
other soldiers, promptly seized our poor colonel, 
and barbarously mutilated his eyes, nose and 
mouth. Then turning to our second in command, 
they mutilated his flesh in the same way. Finally 
turning to me, I begged to be spared the horrible 
infliction. On they came ; when, preferring death 
at their hands to such mutilation, I suddenly 
whipped out a revolver which they had over- 
looked, and shot the foremost beast dead in his 
tracks. The shot was returned, and the bullet 
grazed my temple, dazing me for an instant. But 
deciding, no doubt, to reserve me for a worse fate, 
I was bound and placed under guard. 

‘‘ That night I, together with two other persons, 
escaped and plunged into the depths of the tropical 
forest. Making our way northward, as we sup- 
posed, our progress was rendered extremely diffi- 
cult on account of the darkness and interlacing 
tropical vegetation. Near morning we laid down 
to rest. Long after sunrise I was awakened by a 
low, warning cry from one of my companions : 

“ ‘A boa ! A boa ! Lie flat on the ground and 
watch your chance ! ’ 

“ The cry was full of terror ; so much so that 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


69 


his hands trembled, and he even wept while mak- 
ing it. My blood crept chill as he said, ‘A boa ! ’ 
for although I had never before seen the immense 
size to which this species of serpent attains, I knew 
perfectly well, now ; for the one coiled around the 
low and almost horizontal bough above us must 
have been nearly twenty feet in length. At least 
two-thirds of its body were coiled about the stout 
limb as leverage, and the head and remainder of 
the body slowly swayed to and fro within a few 
feet of our supine bodies. 

‘‘ ‘ Lie flat on the ground and watch your 
chance ! ’ again came in warning, measured tones 
from our companion who had first awakened, and 
who seemed familiar with the python’s habit in 
securing its prey. One after another we quickly 
slid out of the monster’s fatal sweep and plunged 
into and across a marshy depression, thinking all 
the while the awful serpent might be at our heels. 

“ In this adventurous manner ten years of the 
best part of my life were spent under the tropics. 
No opportunity for making money had presented 
itself ; and I reasoned that if I were really doomed 
to live, I had better commence planning for a 
home for my old age. That was a miserable coun- 
try, and I resolved to leave it, and leave it I did, 
and came here. But not directly. I resolved to 
revisit the old homestead and scenes of my 
childhood. The long homeward journey was 


70 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR., 


nearing an end. It had been tiresome, but not 
nearly so much so as the journey away from home 
had been. I presume this was because of that 
joyful feeling of expectancy which always tends 
to sweeten the homeward-bound trip. Brother 
May brook, I have been a Christian for only a few 
days, and perhaps I oughtn’t to speak of it ; but 
it has occurred to me that Christians, from this 
reason, in getting back to their heavenly home 
should have more real enjoyment than they had 
while getting away. 

“A point three miles distant from the old home 
was the nearest I could get by rail. Here I landed 
about ten o’clock at night in the autumn. It had 
been dark and misty most of the day, and as I 
stepped out of the warm coach, the air felt damp 
and cold. Instinctively buttoning my overcoat 
tightly about my body, and pulling my hat down 
over my eyes, I, unrecognized, struck out through 
woods and across well-remembered brooks and 
fields. It was quite dark, and the walk turned 
out to be a disagreeable one. 

‘‘Notwithstanding I had a well-defined remem- 
brance of every feature of the road as it had 
been ten years before ; still I found that these years 
had brought obstructions in the shape of fence- 
rows and fallen trees. The air was not only cool, 
but the dismal rain had been constantly falling 
ever since I had left the train. The earth was 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


71 


soaked, my clothing dampened, and my body 
chilled. Especially was this true of my feet. 
Added to all this discomfort, I was quite 
hungry, as I had had no supper. This was 
my condition of physical discomfort as I ap- 
proached the foot of the rather high bluff, or ridge 
of ground, on which the old two-story frame house 
had stood for so many years. My hunger and the 
familiar surroundings caused old habits to assert 
themselves ; and as I had done so many times be- 
fore on arriving at this point late at night, I began 
to, reflect on the comforts that awaited me at the 
old hearthstone and in the well-remembered pan- 
try. I commenced ascending the stone driveway 
which led gradually up and across the brow of the 
bluff and landed upon a level in front of the house 
beside the locust trees. As I ascended, I reflected 
that I should find my parents abed, and very prob- 
ably sound asleep. Of course I should not awaken 
them : there would be no necessity for so doing ; 
for the coals from their evening fire would still be 
alive in the fireplace. I should simply stir them 
up and dry my damp clothing; enjoy the genial 
warmth, and possibly a lunch of something which 
had been left from supper. These reflections 
added energy to my steps ; and not till I had half 
way ascended the hill did the old habit of raising 
my eyes for a look at the old place assert itself. 
But this time the house was not there! Never 


72 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


shall I forget the mingled emotions of fear, disap- 
pointment and loneliness which, as a weight, set- 
tled down upon my heart as I made this discovery. 
For several moments I stood as one dazed. Pres- 
ently I turned about in my tracks and looked, now 
in this direction, and now in that. There was no 
difficulty in locating the neighboring buildings, 
for it was now near midnight, and the wind had 
suddenly risen, breaking up the clouds and skur- 
rying them across the face of the moon. Without 
doubt, there stood the old barn in its accustomed 
place ; though, in truth, it did seem smaller and 
more dilapidated than when I had last seen it. In 
the opposite direction stood the solitary corn-crib. 
The beech grove and mulberry trees, in like man- 
ner, I discovered in their proper places. But the 
dear old house ; the cradle of my earliest infancy 
and childhood ; the harbor of my young manhood ; 
the center of all the blessed affections that I had 
ever known ; all that remained of it were two little 
knolls of broken brick and mortar corresponding to 
the chimneys that had stood at either end of the 
house. The ploughshare had, that same season, 
literally passed over its foundations, and a crop of 
Indian corn and pumpkins was maturing on that 
sacred spot of earth ! I sat upon the new fence 
which the unfeeling agriculturist had erected in 
front, with a heart full of sad regrets. The queries 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


7a 


which had obtruded themselves upon my mind 
from the first kept presenting themselves : 

‘ What’s become of the old home ? What’s 
become of father and mother? ’ The only answers 
that were returned to these questions were a mo- 
mentary fiood of moonlight, and the sharp snap of 
a corn-stalk, caused by the first plunge of a rab- 
bit from his bed under a large pumpkin leaf 
where the front door used to stand. 

“ With a heavy heart I turned in the direction 
of the home of a married sister a couple of miles 
away, wlio, after recovering from her surprise at 
seeing me, weepingly told the story of father’s 
death, and the demolition of the old home by a 
neighboring farmer into whose hands it had fallen. 
I slept till a late hour the next morning, and after 
a few days pleasantly spent in the home of my 
sister and her husband, and living over with them 
the scenes and events of other years, I was ready 
to turn my face westward. There was one pre- 
cious experience, however, which I resolved should 
be mine before I left, — I would revisit the old 
home scenes alone in daylight, and for the last 
time. It so happened that the last afternoon be- 
fore the day of my departure was warm and 
cloudless, — another of the myriad similar days 
that had passed over my head_, ere this, in the 
midst of these same surroundings. So, without 
indicating to my sister as to where I was going, I 


74 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


picked up my hat and started out. First, I came 
to the wheat-fields, but lately cut ; next, to the 
little creek, in whose banks and meanderings 
were bound up a thousand memories of ‘ the bare- 
foot boy.’ The same pebbles seemed still to be 
in the same ‘ riffles,’ and were making those pre- 
cious waters sing the same old songs. As a bare- 
foot boy, wading amongst these pebbles in the 
shallows, or treading upon the flat stones in the 
shady depths where the larger fish were always 
found, I had never been able to believe that, as a 
man, I should ever find in the wide world about 
me, waters which I could learn to love so well; 
and now, as I stood there listening once more to 
the well-remembered song of the troubled current, 
I realized that my early conjectures had been cor- 
rect. With joyful, bounding steps, my feet 
mounted once more the sedgy banks, fragrant 
with growing ‘peppermint. As I walked along, 
now and then looking over into the deeper water 
at my reflected face and form — as I had done so 
many times as a boy — I observed that the tooth of 
time had wrought such great changes in the chan- 
nel that," in some instances, it was impossible to 
locate certain points in the course of the stream. 
Presently I came to the old ‘wash-place.’ In 
times of scarcity of water at the house, mother 
had done the family washing at the creek. A 
large iron kettle had remained from week to week 


' HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


75 


suspended from a fence rail placed horizontally in 
the forks of two upright stakes driven into the 
ground. There was still the old box-alder against 
which mother had placed her wash-tub, and there 
was the large rock upon which the tub had rested. 
But, alas ! mother was not there, leaning over the 
tub with arms and hands bared and red and white 
in the foaming suds. What would I not have 
given, then, if I could have recalled barely one of 
the hundreds of times that I had seen her in that 
position! Close by were two large stones, worn 
somewhat smooth on top, and half imbedded in 
the ground, upon which my brother and I had so 
often applied the ‘ battling-sticks.’ The log, one 
end of which, in the years gone by, had been 
buried under the sedimental bank, and the other 
half immersed in the creek — upon which latter end 
brother and I had walked out to dip up the water, 
was now wholly hidden from view by an acre or 
more of sandy deposit. A little further down, 
still, stood the old cottonwood, larger and health- 
ier than ever. Only a few feet from it I rec- 
ognized a dear, dead old friend, the decayed and 
broken trunk of the old butternut tree which, in 
other years, had supplied me with so many deli- 
cious nuts. But, saddest of all, — the site of the 
old house where I had been born and reared was a 
cornfield! This was more than ten years ago. 
As I have already said, I at once turned my face 


76 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


westward and came here. During this time I 
have homesteaded, pre-empted, ranched and 
shipped, till to-day — well, no matter, I am no 
longer as poor as I was then.” 

Potts sat stirring the embers in silence with the 
poker as though he had completed his story. Ob- 
serving that he didn’t proceed, I relieved my mind 
by asking a question which had presented itself 
while he had been speaking: “And the lady, 
your old schoolmate friend — it is to be hoped that 
her marriage proved happy as well as fortunate, 
from a worldly point of view?” I ventured cau- 
tiously. 

“I have never heard anything to cause me to 
think otherwise.” And then, observing that I did 
not proceed with other questions, he continued : 
“But he’s dead now; died four or five years ago ; 
and she and her little daughter now live with her 
parents in Hodon.” 

“Ah ! ” I exclaimed, out of my interest in Potts, 
and my curiosity which had grown out of the 
knowledge I now possessed of the old relationship 
between her and my friend, “ and do I know her ? ” 

“Her name is Hester Yane ! ” 


CHAPTER X. 


HE next morning A^irginia Tracy gently 



1 knocked at our door. Before this she had 
been a frequent caller at our house , and so 
familiar with our family life had she come to be 
that she now scarcely waited for the door to be 
opened, especially as there seemed to be, just then, 
something of nnusual weight bearing upon her 
mind. Sister Tracy was the maiden daughter of 
brother Tracy. His wife had long been dead ; and 
since Virginia, or “ Virga,’’ as she was called, was 
an only child, she naturally, and I might add, 
necessarily, stepped into her mother’s place in the 
management of the affairs of the household. And: 
though report had it that Virga was just a little 
domineering towards her father from her throne 
as housekeeper, still no one could deny that she 
was proud of him and jealously looked after his 
comfort and honor. From some undefinable rea- 
son, or reasons, a strong friendship had, in this 
short time, grown up between Mrs. Maybrook and 
Virga. Possibly this had resulted from about the 
same reason, or reasons, that such attachments 
are every day springing up between ladies of ma- 
ture age who resolve to be friends and spend 


( 77 ) 



78 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


much time together. Sister Tracy now walked 
half way across the room, and proceeded to take 
off her hat, — which feat was finally accomplished 
by dint of much contortion of features, arms and 
body, necessary in order to remove divers pins 
which secured the hat to her hair. 

‘‘Well, what do you think, anyhow?” she 
gasped, breathless from exhaustion, and at the 
same time dropping half despairingly into my 
large cushioned chair. 

“Think about what?” inquired Mrs. Maybrook. 

“My being invited to the old people's party 
she returned with special emphasis on the last 
three words. 

“ Oh ! ” said Mrs. Maybrook ; “ I perceive that 
you know something about the serial, also. Well, 
I have heard of parties before, but I never heard 
of that way of giving them. But I suppose it’s 
their way of doing things here.” 

“0^, git out!'''' was all that Yirga deigned to 
respond. It was her way of showing her contempt 
for the whole proceeding. After a moment’s 
silence she continued: “When Hester Vane sent 
me that invitation I was never so mad in my life. 
She’d better think of her own age, for once. She’ll 
be trying to rank herself with the children, next ! 
I thought something of the kind was in the wind 
last Sunday when I saw her whispering in the 
choir all through Bro. Maybrook’ s prayer.” 


79 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 

Just then, passing out of my study, and into the 
room where the ladies were talking, Mrs. May- 
brook, addressing me, said : “ I am reminded by 

sister Tracy’s coming of a matter which I had for- 
gotten to mention.” 

“Indeed! Out with it, then,” I said. 

“ While you were off on your hunt, we were 
invited to a party.” 

“And where, pray?” 

“At the Hardencases’.” 

“Well, of course we shall have to go,” I said, 
good-humoredly. 

“You’d better not,” chimed in Yirga, “unless 
you are good dancers and card-players ! ” 

“ Why, Yirga ; you don’t mean to say that 
brother and sister Hardencase would tolerate 
these things in their home as features of their 
party ! ” exclaimed Mrs. Maybrook. 

“I mean to say that they have never been 
known to give a party without them. They argue 
that there is no harm in them. You folks’ll have 
to get used to dancing and card-playing, if you 
live in this town and work with this church.” 

Thinking that there must, certainly, be some 
mistake as to brother and sister Hardencase, and 
Yirga’s last remark seeming to imply that there 
were others in the church with like views and 
practices, I ventured to remark that I was glad 
there were no more such people in the church. 


80 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


Why ! ’’ exclaimed Virga, in surprise, “ haven’t 
you heard that, yet? More than half the mem- 
bers of this church attend balls and card parties, 
and they’ll argue you down that it’s right, too.” 

And, thus, had unexpectedly arisen upon our 
work at Hodon the first cloud with its portents of 
trouble. Cleverly, I reflected, had these things, if 
true, been kept from us both by officers and mem- 
bers; while, as I well knew, our own qualifica- 
tions for the work had been diligently inquired 
into before we were finally called. But now that 
I had got an inkling, I resolved to know the whole 
truth on this score as soon as possible. 

“But you haven’t told me when this party 
comes off,” I said, inquiringly. 

“On next Wednesday evening,” said my wife. 

“ Then,” continued I, musingly, “ to-day is 
Tuesday, to-morrow is Wednesday — but to-morrow 
evening is regular prayer-meeting. How can we 
afford to forsake the prayer-meeting to attend a 
party, and how can the Hardencases afford to do 
the same thing?” 

“Oh,” began Yirga, in some sarcasm, “this is a 
serial party. Brother and sister Hardencase and 
Hester will have to stay at home to keep the 
goats from mingling with the sheep. The first 
of the series comes off this evening. This is for 
the old people, like myself!” glancing at Mrs. 
Maybrook. “ To-morrow, or Wednesday evening, 



6 


MR. GODOWN 


( 81 ) 



82 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


is for the middle-aged, like you and Mrs. May- 
brook, and the evening following is for the chil- 
dren.” 

‘‘ Indeed ! ” I said in mock gravity. “ I have 
heard of many curious things ere this, but I never 
before heard of a serial party. But to-morrow 
evening being regular prayer- meeting, affords us a 
good excuse for not attending. Who knows that 
it was not all so arranged on purpose?” 

Mr. Godown was not recognized as a brother in 
the church. It had come to be generally known 
by the members of the church, however, that Mr. 
Godown at one time filled the office of deacon and 
handed round the emblems of the Lord’s Supper in 
a church in some eastern state. Some even thought 
that he had been elder, inferring this, no doubt, 
from his undoubted knowledge of the Scriptures 
and native force of intellect, which would no 
doubt have rendered him ‘‘ apt to teach,” so far as 
this single qualification might have gone towards 
fitting him for this more responsible office. But 
Mr. Godown, it was said, while he interposed no 
objection to the attendance of his wife and daugh- 
ters upon all the services of the church, neverthe- 
less was, himself, no longer a frequenter of the 
house of the Lord ; had in fact been out to hear 
me barely once during my first half year in 
Hodon. Had he come to be an infidel? Yes, 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


83 


and no. He still “believed the doctrine,’’ as 
he declared to his wife, and to me, even; but 
he declared, further, that he had lost all faith 
in the sincerity of human effort to “live out 
the doctrine.” In personal appearance he was 
low of stature, broad and stoop-shouldered, with 
red face and trailing nose, which, resist the 
thought as I might, continually reminded me of a 
gorilla that I somewhere had seen. A few short 
iron-gray whiskers on his chin were worn as un- 
consciously, and with as little care, as his every- 
day plain suit of clothes. His meat and drink 
was controversy; and, to do him justice, he was 
always well posted on current events. But espe- 
cially did he seem to be well read on such sub- 
jects as comparative religions ; antiquities, as em- 
bracing the results of modern excavations. These 
are subjects concerning which the average citizen 
knows little and cares less ; and it was amusing 
to be on the public square and look in advance of 
Mr. Godown’s progress along the sidewalk and 
observe the little knots of idlers suddenly stop in- 
dulging themselves in one another’s lore, and 
scatter as he approached. 


CHAPTER XI. 


T he Hodon ^ell Out came out on Friday of the 
week of which I have just been speaking, 
and Mr. Godown opened his paper in the presence 
of his wife, and his small eyes glistened and his 
face turned a shade redder as he got a short dis- 
tance into a somewhat lengthy local. Suddenly 
shrugging his shoulders, and accompanying the 
same motion with a nasal sniff, which he most 
always did when suddenly possessed of a new 
idea or argument, he turned to his wife and said : 

“ Wife, here’s an illustration of what I’ve always 
said, that church-members can’t so gild over danc- 
ing and card-playing with what passes for Chris- 
tianity and respectability as to make these things 
right when indulged in by church-members, and 
wrong when indulged in by others, though not so 
well dressed or fed, under different circumstances ; 
that the principle in both cases is the same, and 
tends to evil, and evil only.” And then he read 
aloud a carefully prepared report of the Harden- 
case serial party ; such a report as is usually pre- 
pared for the press and gloried in by the giver of 
such parties. This one read as follows : 

“Mrs. Hardencase, assisted by her charming daughter, 
Hester Vane, entertained a number of their friends on Tues- 
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HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


85 


day, Wednesday and Thursday evenings of this week in their 
elegant home just outside the city, because of their guest, Miss 
Door, of Crane. The enjoyment each evening was enhanced by 
cards and dancing. ’ ’ 

Then followed lists of those present each even- 
ing, and in these lists were found at least a half 
dozen names which were also to be found on each 
of the church rolls of the city. 

IS'ow,” continued Mr. Godown, “please to notice 
that in this adjoining column, and so nearly oppo- 
site as to suggest editorial design in the arrange- 
ment, I find the report of another card-party which 
seems to have been participated in by less re- 
spectable persons, and under far less respectable 
circumstances. Observe how it reads : ” 

“It is rumored that a black eye which was but poorly con- 
cealed to-day, was the result of a ‘quiet’ little card game that 
took place a few nights ago in a certain second-rate barber shop 
on a back street ; and that in consequence cards are no longer 
indulged in there . ’ ’ 

A derisive smile was set in Mr. Godown’s fea- 
tures as he turned the paper, half suspecting that 
his wife might venture a word of defense. But she 
did not. Now that her husband had spoken, the 
matter was settled, and settled in his way so far 
as she was concerned. 

F. M. Sodders was a whippersnapper, accepting 
the meaning of this word as being “ a small and 
insignificant person.” Brother Sodders, though 
small as to his bodily presence, nevertheless was 


86 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


naturally a great tyrant. No man, possibly, ever 
lived to whom a little pinch of authority was so 
sweet, and who could derive such exquisite enjoy- 
ment in the employment of the same, in perse- 
cuting others. Figuratively speaking, his chief 
delight, as it seemed, was to get a pair of small 
pincers fastened upon your finger, and then put- 
ting on his great power, blandly listen to your 
complainings, though he didn’t look at you, mean- 
while. He was too humble to do that ; but would 
sit a little back with downcast eyes while fiourish- 
ing with pen or pencil on some waste paper with 
his other hand, at the same time slowly and re- 
peatedly shaking his small head in the negative 
in response to your pleading, a way of doing 
which some great men have. Neither did he 
allow his hand to be seen on the pincers if he could 
help it. I beg the reader’s pardon for keeping 
brother Sodders in the background so long — a 
state of things, no doubt, extremely repugnant to 
the brother himself, and which he would have 
had far otherwise, could he have had the arrang- 
ing of events of this narrative. I mean to say that 
brother Sodders was foremost in every department 
of church work ; was foremost as deacon in bring- 
ing about our call to the Hodon church ; was fore- 
most as church clerk, as we have already seen, in 
notifying us of such call. Besides, it was brother 
Sodders who was janitor, church treasurer, and 



88 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


Sunday school superintendent. And going on down 
into the Y. P. S. C. E., and other departments of 
church life and work, the good Lord only knows 
how many other offices were filled by brother Sod- 
ders. Tradesmen, mechanics, and all non-church- 
goers, generally, whose duties and interests might 
happen to lead them into business or industrial 
relations with this church, seemed to look upoR 
brother Sodders as the church down town, so to 
speak, on two legs for the public convenience. If 
a gallon of kerosene was to be delivered at the 
church, brother Sodders had the key at his office. 
If they had occasion to allude to the church, they 
thought first of brother Sodders, and they spoke 
his name most always in high praise ; for, how was 
it possible for a man to be a whole church and not 
be a remarkably good and great man? Who, 
then, would have ever suspected that brother Sod- 
ders as standing up under all this weight of official 
responsibility, actually wanted to be an elder 
also. I never harbored the remotest suspicion of 
such a thing, especially after he had been asked 
to accept, and he had slowly and repeatedly 
shaken his small head in the negative. And, yet, 
that was my fatal blunder. Brother Sodders really 
did want the office of elder; and so badly, too, 
that he would, doubtless, have been willing to 
barter a dozen or more minor offices for this single 
honor. I ought to have suspected, at least, that 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


8& 

this slow and repeated shaking of the head in the 
negative was really brother Sodders’ way of ac- 
cepting ; for on a previous occasion when official 
honor was publicly tendered him, he acted in the 
same manner; but in response to a question by 
the chairman he admitted that it was all modesty 
on his part that caused him to act thus ! 

I have said that this was fatal to me — fatal so 
far as retaining the friendship of the brother was 
concerned ; for his apparent declination caused me 
to innocently suggest the name of brother I. D. 
Tracey for this same office. Now, brother Sod- 
ders before this had been heard to remark that he 
hated I. D. Tracey worse than a snake. And it 
was a fact which I afterwards discovered, that 
these two brethren had no love for each other, 
and were both striving for the pre-eminence in the 
church — such pre-eminence, so to speak, as would 
enable them to carry the church at Hodon in their 
vest pockets. And thus I innocently lost the 
friendship of F. M. Sodders, and he has been after 
me with his little pincers ever since. And he 
actually succeeded in pinching me a little, once at 
least. 

It happened in this way: a certain traveling 
troupe of singers was given a date for the benefit 
of the church — given a date by brother Sodders, of 
course ; for pray who else had any authority in 
the church ? Twenty complimentaries for the use 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 

of pressmen and wives, and pastors and wives 
were turned over to the church ; that is, to brother 
Sodders, which all means the same thing. Now, 
it so turned out that while, as a matter of fact, all 
of the other pastors of the city received tickets, 
myself and wife did not. Pincers ! Then I 
remembered brother Sandrick’s prophecy! 


CHAPTER XII. 


O N the Lord’s day following the serial party at 
the Hardencases’, I made no allusion to the 
sins of dancing and card-playing in my sermon, 
though I fancy that those best acquainted with me 
might have detected in my manner a tinge of sad- 
ness and discouragement. A few weeks afterwards 
I dropped into a home where the ladies of our Aid 
Society were assembled for business and work. I 
dropped in without design, and intended to remain 
a few moments only. But it so happened that the 
ladies, just then, had a subject under consideration 
which concerned the vital interests of the church, 
as I considered. So I did not leave immediately. 
The subject was, “Shall a series of dime sociables 
be inaugurated as well for the sake of revenue as 
for the development of the members, socially ? ” 
I listened attentively as the discussion proceeded, 
and I finally gathered that the proposed plan was 
for sociables to be given bi-monthly in the several 
homes of the church ; that while all ages were to 
be made welcome, the amusement of the young 
should be especially looked after by providing 
divers games for their delectation. I should read- 
ily enough have understood that our ladies meant 
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HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


by the word games ^ such innocent games as “ tid- 
dledy winks ’’ and “ pigs in clover,” had it not 
occurred to me at that instant that Virga had pre- 
viously remarked at our house that such sociables 
had been given before by our ladies, and that 
cards had been provided for the children that 
differed in no wise from those used by the com- 
mon gambler. Hence, at this point in the discus- 
sion, apologizing for the interference, I ventured 
to suggest that if the plan were adopted it ought 
to be with the understanding that the cards ordi- 
narily used for gambling purposes should be 
excluded. 

“Well, then, Bro. Maybrook,” exclaimed sister 
Hardencase, so sudden and fussy-like as to almost 
startle us, at the same time wheeling her chair so 
as to confront me, “ while we’re coming to this un- 
derstanding, perhaps it would be well to come to 
another understanding. Quite a number of our 
members are objecting to your making a magic- 
lantern show out of the Sunday evening service. 
Suppose we come to an , understanding that this 
magic-lantern business is to be excluded, also, 
hereafter.” 

“Agreed, sister Hardencase,” said I, no doubt in 
some embarrassment. “My duty as pastor, as I 
understand it, is, in the main, to promote spir- 
itual growth in the members of this church ; and 
if any instrumentality which I may see fit to em- 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


93 


ploy in order to accomplish this should prove 
objectionable to any considerable number of our 
members, I shall gladly abandon the use of such 
instrument, especially where there is no moral or 
religious principle involved.” 

Excusing myself, soon after, I walked down to 
the river and plunged into the foliage that skirted 
its banks. I wanted seclusion that I might think. 
The first warm days of spring had come, and the 
miracle of a vernal resurrection which their warm 
kiss had set in motion was now in progress. The 
swelling buds of the box-tree and such like stunted 
growth were bursting, and festoons of wild grape- 
vines in full bloom loaded down the air with a 
heavy, drowsy odor almost too powerful to 
breathe, and in which the honey-bee droned out 
its delight. As I said, I entered this tangle that I 
might think over the obstacles that had, thus 
early, presented themselves to my work at Hodon 
in the sins of some of the members. Was I to 
blame ? I asked. Doubtless I had made mistakes; 
and possibly my offending members were doing 
no worse. If so, what third party could be called 
in to correct our errors? Evidently God’s Word; 
its “thus saith the Lord” on all such things, and, 
in the absence of this, its spirit. Hence, my 
course in dealing with all such things in the 
future seemed plainly mapped out before me. 

On my return, I reached the wagon-road em- 


94 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


bankment which conducted to the river bridge. 
Starting through the bridge, I saw Potts on horse- 
back approaching the other entrance from the di- 
rection of town. Half reclining against some 
large horizontal iron rods, I waited till he came 
up. His crushing grip upon my right hand, 
and his honest, weather-beaten face, said to 
my heart in language plainer than words ; 
“Here’s the pure gold. Here’s the material for a 
confidant and friend.” Indeed, we had already 
confided in one another ; for, from the first, there 
had been something in the steady, open gaze of 
his blue eyes, and the grasp of his brawny hand, 
that had attracted me to him. 

But in saying this, and what has been said in 
preceding pages in referring to the few members 
of this church who have been introduced by name, 
I would not be understood as implying that good 
and true Christians were wholly lacking in the 
Hodon church, or were in the minority, even. On 
the contrary, these constituted a large majority of 
our members. But, as intimated, as a result of 
having been naturally drawn towards Potts, and 
repelled by our worldly members, I was just as 
naturally led to speak of this last class, first. 

Potts had thrown one leg over the horn of 
his saddle in preparing for our conversation, 
but a suggestion as to his own comfort, and that 
of his horse, caused him to dismount and recline 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


95 


by my side. Enjoying to the full that luxury 
which freedom of conversation with a friend is apt 
to bring, we, for this reason, discoursed on gen- 
eral topics longer than we should otherwise have 
done. At length I came to the point and said : 

“ Potts, I will say to you that I have been dis- 
appointed, not to say, deceimd^ in my selection of 
this work at Hodon. Prom recent events, I find 
myself being forced to the conclusion that we 
have quite a number in our church who are 
worldly, dancing, card-playing members ; and 
that, resulting from blood relationship, we have 
another quite as large an element in the church 
that upholds and defends them. How is this, 
Potts? Am I right?” 

“Yes, brother Maybrook; and if, as intimated, 
you didn’t know about these things, you are in 
for it, and no mistake. This is ung-ung-ung-ung 
Hoedown town, if ever there was one. It’s got its 
right name. Whether it got its name because so 
many church people ‘ shake the foot in it,’ I don’t 
know ; but if it did, it only goes to show that they 
have been at this thing a long time. But, let me 
ask : you speak of certain events that are forcing 
you to conclude so-and-so ; may I ask if you have 
seen any of our members dancing?” 

“Oh! no; I wouldn’t likely be around such 
places.” 

“I thought not. Then let me ask again: 


96 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


Have you talked with any of our members ^who 
have, themselves, seen any of our members danc- 
ing ? ” 

I, again, said I had not. 

“Now, there’s the trouble,” continued Potts. 
“And you will have the same trouble in dealing 
with this element in the church that the temper- 
ance folks always experience in dealing with the 
saloon-keeper. It’s hard to get positive evidence. 
I’m like you: I haven’t been there and seen for 
myself, but my hearsay is that they hold their 
club dances regularly in this town, and that at 
least ten of our members are included in the club. 
I don’t think this is far out of the way. The other 
churches in town, I think, are represented in the 
club in about the same proportion.” 

At length, bidding Potts good evening, I reflect- 
ively bent my steps in the direction of home. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

F rom this on, the spring and summer months of 
our first year at Hodon wore slowly by, giv- 
ing rise to instances no more worthy of record 
than such as grew out of my daily visitation in 
the homes of our members. Heart-burnings there 
Were at times, of course, resulting from the 
thoughtless use of the tongue, as, for instance, 
when I occasionally heard that I had been allud- 
ed to as, simply, “ Maybrook or when it 
came to my ears through an equally thoughtless 
brother, that old “Foddy” Hardencase had given 
it as his opinion that a certain incident which I 
had related in one of my sermons “ was more than 
half a lie Doubtless, during these months, at 
unguarded times, I permitted myself to be led 
into remarks to supposed friends in referring to 
our worldly members which, coming to their ears, 
occasioned heart-burnings on their part. Never- 
theless, the fact existed, and could not be denied, 
that the manner of life led by this class of our 
members during this time, rendered largely im- 
potent our efforts and influence as a church in the 
community. Several of our wealthy sisters pre- 
siding over elegant homes had come, as it seemed, 
7 ( 97 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


to take more delight in giving and attending card 
parties and balls, than they took in the services 
of the sanctuary and the various activities of the 
church. These things could not be hidden from 
the world, and the result was that the world had 
not only come dangerously near despising the 
whole church on account of the inconsistencies of 
the few, but there were also several of our most 
conscientious and self-respecting members who 
had come to that point where they were holding 
themselves aloof from fellowship and public wor- 
ship. 

The time had also come when brother Sodders’ 
little pincers were beginning to perceptibly tight- 
en up on our little household. For, be it remem- 
bered, that brother Sodders “had the bag” — was 
church treasurer — and, from reasons already hint- 
ed, did not put himself out of the way to collect 
our salary. But, notwithstanding all these hin- 
drances, good works and growth in grace consti- 
tuted the moving current in the channel of our 
church life, and all these sins in our membership 
were but the eddyings near the shore. 

Our hot summer evening prayer-meetings dur- 
ing this time were not models for imitation to any 
great extent. Whether the hot weather tended to 
irritability in the old people, I am not able to say, 
but certain it is that our old brethren were gener- 
ally disposed to be cross at the mid-week prayer- 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


99 


meeting. I, myself, innocently caused tlie 
introduction of a bone of contention into our 
prayer-meeting in the person of a very pious and 
prayerful Seventh-Day Adventist. Having ob- 
served his pious and godly demeanor, and know- 
ing that there was no organization of his own 
faith in Hodon, I invited him to attend our prayer- 
meetings, in particular. But our old brethren 
seemed to regard him as a kind of intruder and 
target for their remarks. Brother Hardencase, for 
instance, would arise, with open “ Book ” in 
hand, and say with a threatening shake of the 
head, as looking askance at the Advent brother : 

“I’m a gwine to tell ye jist what the Book says 
about it, and then ye can do jist as ye please. 
My duty’ll then be done.” 

Brother Tracey, in his turn, would arise, and ad- 
dressing me, proceed to level a clear-cut scriptural 
argument against “The Cleansing of the Sanc- 
tuary,” or some other hazy Advent doctrine. 

After a song the Advent brother would himself 
reverently stand, and apparently in the spirit of 
one turning the other side of the face to the smiter, 
would indulge in a few conciliatory remarks, and 
finally ask all present to kneel with himself in 
prayer. 

Sister Tungsend, who never did more than sing, 
and who was never known to say a good word 
about anybody except, peradventure, her own 


100 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


husband and children, and their own favorite 
preacher in Ohio, would be sitting just behind 
sister Banker. Sister Banker, after herself sitting 
still through several dead pauses in this same 
service, would arise and rapidly exclaim : 

“ I declare, I don’t see how some people can sit 
still when everybody around them is praying or 
saying something. I don’t see how they can be 
satisfied with merely singing. Anybody can 
sing ! ” She would then resume her seat and sister 
Tungsend would be ready to declare that she 
meant it all for her. 

Old brother Sandrick’s time would, at length, 
arrive — which was always after everybody else,and 
he had been called out. Then, after hanging his 
head for several moments, the old brother would 
slowly raise himself over the back of the pew just 
in front and the curve of his walking stick, till he 
had gained the floor. Standing thus in silence 
for a few moments longer, with eyes still some- 
what downcast, and looking the very embodiment 
of gravity and wisdom, he would finally quote the 
very text of scripture which everybody expected, 
viz. : ‘‘ How readest thou % ” and make the very 
speech which everybody anticipated, and which 
some of the older brethren and sisters who had 
known him longest had heard him make, doubt- 
less, a hundred times. This time, however, it was 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


101 


plain to be seen that the Advent brother was 
duly kept in mind. 

During one such meeting some one raised the 
question as to why more were not present. Brother 
Hardencase, whose ideas had become somewhat 
quickened during the progress of the meeting, and 
who was thirsting for still more gore, arose with 
“Book” in hand, and observed that he had had 
considerable experience in raising sheep, and when 
the time for feeding his flock arrived, if, perad- 
venture, some of the sheep were not in view, he 
went out after them and brought them in. “ Now,” 
he said, looking at me in particular, “this Book 
tells me that every well-regulated flock of believ- 
ers has its shepherds, and if the flock’s not all 
here at feedin’ time, whose fault is it, I’d like to 
know ? ” 


CHAPTER XIV. 


I T HAD been talked over and practically de- 
cided by the superintendent of the Sunday- 
school, and leading members, that the children 
should be treated to a picnic some day during the 
hot weather, and it was unanimously conceded that 
a ride on the Narrow Gauge R. R. up Grace Can- 
yon to the ore fields would be just the thing. But 
when the time at length came for the children to 
vote, these same brethren proceeded with the mat- 
ter in a way to get a little amusement out of it for 
themselves. When the superintendent announced 
that the point had been reached for miscellaneous 
business, brother Tracy arose, and in a very earn- 
est manner proceeded to say that the matter of a 
picnic for the children had been considered by the 
superintendent and others, and that it had been 
thought at first that the thing to do was to give the 
children a ride up the canyon that they might pic- 
nic in the shade of the rocks and pines ; but that 
the matter had been reconsidered since, and that 
it was now thought that, inasmuch as the car fare 
would amount to considerable, it would be best 

for the children to simply throw their dinners to- 
C103) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


103 


gether in the barsement of the church and eat 
there. 

Disappointment was plainly visible in the faces 
of the little ones. Many were seen to shake their 
heads and even frown. It was plain to be seen 
that brother Tracy’s speech hadn’t been well 
received ; and when he had resumed his seat, the 
superintendent arose and remarked that the chil- 
dren had been made to understand that they were 
going to have a picnic, and that he didn’t think 
they ought to be disappointed. 

“And I second the motion ! ” exclaimed a sister 
with startling suddenness in the back part of the 
room. 

Then resulted laughter and looking backward ; 
after which the superintendent, who was enjoying 
the scene, said : “ We’ll take a vote on it and see 

whether we’ll take the ride up the canyon. All in 
favor of taking the ride up the canyon, hold up the 
right hand ! ” Every little hand went up. 

“ That decides it, then,” said the superintendent. 
“We’ll have the ride, and if brother Tracy don’t 
want to go, he can stay at home and eat his din- 
ner in the basement.” 

“ Or crawl up into the bell-tower ! ” observed 
some one else. Then there was more mirth— -this 
time at brother Tracy’s expense. 

The day dawned bright and clear as a crystal 
vase. Two passenger coaches were placed at the 


104 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


disposal of the Sunday-school and such other 
pleasure-seekers and business people as happen- 
ed to be going up to the ore region that day. 
The iron track at length entered the canyon’s 
mouth, and keeping only a few feet above and to 
one side of the agitated waters of Gfrace Creek, 
followed the meanderings of the stream and of the 
canyon the entire distance of six miles. So 
crooked were these meanderings, and so sharp 
were the curves around the rocky spurs, that our 
train, short as it was, assumed, at one instant, 
the shape of the letter S, and the next that 
of the letter U. In this latter instance, those 
sitting in the concave of the curve could easily 
peer out of their windows and see the small 
but powerful engine gracefully swinging around 
towards them, and furiously throwing backward 
its cinders and smoke, while rapidly jetting forth 
its che-che-che-che-che-che, as if in anger and des- 
peration it were drawing its load ; then, suddenly 
disappearing behind a rocky spur, the U would 
again change into S. 

The children in gala-day costumes clapped their 
little hands and screamed ; some of them from 
surprise, and others from fear, as they peered 
through their open windows upon the massive 
walls of solid rock on the one hand, or down upon 
the tossing waters of Grrace Creek on the other. 
Now, the rocky wall would be cleft from bot- 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


105 


tom to top. The next instant it would be 
spurred out against the track like the prow of a 
great ship. Now retreating, now surmounted by 
a sharp, tower-shaped needle, and now by ever- 
green pines. Now the color of the pitched and 
splintered strata would be red, now it would be 
black, and now variegated, owing to the mineral 
coloring matter contained. Th§ children, on the 
other hand, as they craned their little necks and 
peered far down upon Grace Creek, saw its blue 
waters break into a hundred forms and shades by 
the curves and offsets in its rocky bed, but espe- 
cially by the numerous bowlders which, as if by de- 
sign, had obtruded themselves in the very center of 
the moving current. Corresponding with the rail- 
road, and always on the opposite side of the stream, 
was a wagon-road, used also by the hauler of ore, 
as well as by the carriage of the pleasure-seeker. 
At one point where our train stopped for a few 
moments, the steep, rocky wall on one side of the 
dirt road, and the rocky verge overlooking the 
creek on the other, were so close together as to 
afford barely sufficient width for the passage of 
one vehicle. In this instance, two wagon teams, 
not knowing of the approach of each other, had 
suddenly met at this point. There was but one 
thing to do, and the teamsters were doing that. 
The horses must be unhooked, and one of the wag- 
ons taken to pieces and carried over the other, and 


108 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


again put together. This, as I said, the teamsters 
were doing when we saw them. Potts observed 
that such a road wouldn’t suit him ; that he had 
been accustomed to more room than that. 

The terminus of our road was finally reached, 
which proved to be at a point where the rocky 
canyon wall had swung half a mile or more away 
from the stream, thus permitting the deposit of 
sediment till several acres of bottom had been 
formed. 

High and cool as was the general elevation, there 
was some sparse verdure, and a few hardy fiowers 
scattered here and there. Here the hungry chil- 
dren lunched. After this, almost the entire school 
scaled a neighboring pine-clad peak. This was 
no easy feat for some to accomplish, and I observed 
that ere Hester Vane reached the summit she 
gladly availed herself of the proffered assistance 
of Potts’ strong right arm. 

When the summit was reached, which was a 
commanding one, other surprises were in store for 
the children. They breathed the light, crisp air as 
a new experience ; at least with many this was the 
case, and each little pair of lungs at regular inter- 
vals would gasp long and deep in order to catch 
up, so to speak, in its breathing. Potts fired off a 
pistol, which sounded no louder than the bursting 
of a gun cap. 

High over the deepest point in the gorge. 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


107 


borne upon the blue and tremulous ether, a flock 
of magpies, in a kind of venturesome way, as it 
seemed, were bounding and chattering towards the 
pines on the opposite side. While, further up the 
canyon than we had gone, a rain-cloud had burst 
over the highest peaks, and had now settled down 
into the minor ravines, tributary to the main can- 
yon. Splintered and frequent flashes of lightning 
— shuttle-like — ^gleamed up and down, outlining 
these dark ravines, clear up to their beginnings in 
the notches between the peaks. All found the de- 
scent more difficult than the ascent ; and the 
downward rush of our train through the wonderful 
canyon to our home reminded me of the great bliz- 
zard blast that had come roaring out of this same 
canyon on a cold afternoon the winter before. 


CHAPTER XY. 


s ALREADY intimated, our little household was 



r\ more and more made to realize, as the 
months went by, that brother Sodders was church 
treasurer. And, at the end of our first year with 
the church — which came late in the autumn — it 
took very little figuring to show that the 
church owed us nearly two hundred dollars. This 
all meant pincers in brother Sodders’ hands, and 
being pinched on our part. Hence, I resolved that 
our entrance upon the second year’s service should 
be signalized by a change ; either Sodders should 
step down and out as treasurer, or we would 
resign the work and leave. And, in this vigorous 
way, I expressed myself to our church board at its 
first meeting for the new year. For, knowing so 
well as I did, this little man’s love of power, I had 
no hope whatever that he would voluntarily relin- 
quish any of his authority until literally com- 
pelled to do so. 

When the afore-mentioned demand was made, 
brother Tracy — perceiving in the demand his own 
opportunity, and knowing that barely one mem- 
ber of the board would stand by Sodders — moved 
the board in such a manner that Sodders was 


( 108 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


109 


forced out of the office of treasurer ; after which a 
new treasurer was elected. This was not accom- 
plished, however, until after Sodders had stub- 
bornly held out for a whole hour, weeping, and 
even praying, at intervals, that his authority 
might not be taken from him. 

The initiative now being taken, the board 
determined to attempt at least one other reform. 
The dancing and card-playing members must be 
visited, and reasoned and prayed with ; and if 
found incorrigible, be finally withdrawn from. I 
had no reason, as yet, for doubting the sincerity of 
any member of our board in this determination ; 
for I had many times, during the year just closed, 
conversed with each of them, separately, and they 
had all agreed with me that some action ought to 
be taken against this element, as well for their 
own sake as for the credit of the church. Wherein 
I did mistake the members of the board in this 
respect was in the measure of their faith as to the 
possibility of anything being effected in this 
direction. The truth is, they had all lived in 
Hodon much longer than I, and had known of sev- 
eral previous efforts that had been made looking 
to the same end, all of which had resulted in noth- 
ing but bitterness and failure. Destitute of faith 
themselves, as it now seems to me, they were still 
willing that I should make an attempt, if for no 


no 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


other reason, to show to the public the church’s 
disapproval of such practices. 

Accordingly, a called meeting of the board was 
arranged for at the home of elder Tracy; for 
brother Tracy had in the meantime been elected 
and ordained elder. The matter was, then and 
there, duly talked and prayed over ; and finally a 
resolution was hastily drafted, and as hastily 
adopted, expressing the board’s disapproval of 
Christians indulging in such pastimes, together 
with its determination not to retain in the fellow- 
ship of the church, thereafter, such members as 
should persistently engage in the same against 
the repeated remonstrances of the church. This 
resolution passed unanimously, with the single ex- 
ception of brother Sodders, who expressed himself 
as being “not quite certain.” But brother Sodders 
was certain that he had been severely pinched by 
the board himself, recently ; and this, no doubt, 
was the reason he was not quite certain on this 
occasion. So it was decided before adjournment 
that the oifending members should forthwith be 
visited and labored with, and brother Tracy and 
myself were constituted a visiting committee for 
this purpose. Of course, it was an extremely un- 
wise appointment — at least so far as the pastor 
was concerned — but then, we were not infallible. 

As per appointment, I called at the home of 
elder Tracy the following day, ready for duty, 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


Ill 


unpleasant though it seemed in prospect. But 
elder Tracy couldn’t go that day. He felt too 
poorly. Though feeling disappointment, I at 
length suggested that, if he thought it advisable, I 
would visit a few of them, myself, that day, while 
my nerves were steeled up for the task. He was 
only too glad to give his consent, and so I headed 
straight for the home of sister Manifold. This 
sister, I think, had been apprised of the board’s 
action of the evening before, and was expecting 
some such visit. I suspected this from the fact 
that I found her husband at home, also ; and from 
the further fact that the sister gave ample evi- 
dence before I left of having posted up on her 
side of the subject. But now, why recount it all? 
Suffice it to say, that there were the usual charges 
and countercharges ; — on my part the affirmation 
that such indulgences are carnalizing and licen- 
tious, and hence unbecoming to Christians, — fol- 
lowed by extenuation on her part, together with 
charges against certain members of the board of 
certain common practices amounting to filthiness 
of the flesh and of language. This state of things, 
they argued, made it a clear case of “physician, 
heal thyself.” While I was not personally 
charged as being guilty of any of these things, I 
was, nevertheless, made to realize that the board 
of which I was a member, and through which I 
acted, was not wholly free from sin. There could 


113 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


iDe, at most, they argued, a question of flagrancy. 

I then proceeded to the homes of two more of 
our dancing and card-party sisters, and, on ac- 
quainting them of the attitude the church board 
had recently assumed with respect to such prac- 
tices, was met, in both instances, by substantially 
the same extenuation and countercharges. As a 
result of it all, liiy eyes at last came to be opened 
to see the true situation in which the church at 
Hodon had come to be placed — an awful condition 
for a church to be in — viz., absolute powerlessness 
to deal with this class of its members in the mat- 
ter of discipline ! 

I was enabled to see this a great deal plainer a 
couple of weeks later. The board had dared to 
throw down the gauntlet; it was now time for the 
opposition to show its hand. 

Thanksgiving Day drew near; and Thanks- 
giving ball at Hodon had always been a thing to 
be talked about for a long time before and after. 
This time it should be a Bal Masque 1 This was 
the edict of King Rex from his throne of chilled 
glass, or of some other authority equally high and 
revered amongst the light-footed in all of the 
Hodon churches. Why it was decided that it 
should be a Bal Masque^ this year, I don’t pretend 
to know; but from the effort put forth in the 
matter of costumes, it really did seem that 
such an attraction had been determined upon this 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


113 


time as should insure the presence of all in the 
churches, either as spectators or performers — the 
ministers possibly excepted. Hester Yane’s cos- 
tume, being that of a painted and feathered Indian 
chief, was especially ^commented upon — in particu- 
lar certain shines which she cut at the ball as 
clad in this costume. 

The evening succeeding the ball I stood in 
brother Sodders’ office in conversation with him 
and brother Tracy. Rather, brother Tracy and I 
were conversing in brother Sodders’ presence ; for, 
as usual, he was silent and non-committal. In 
order to appear interested, he gazed at everything 
above and in front with dilated eyes and working 
features — every now and then bringing his body 
into more restful attitude — almost always accom- 
panying the latter movement by a huge sigh of 
evident relief. Presently, to the surprise of all, 
in walked Mr. Godown ; — his short body, with its 
stooped shoulders, red face, trailing nose and 
clipped and clinging whiskers, reminding me more 
forcibly than ever of the body and face of the 
gorilla. Addressing brother Sodders, he said : 

“Well, I presume you men settled the dancing 
question in your board meeting, a few evenings 
ago ? ” 

Now, above all things, brother Sodders de- 
sired to avoid controversy with Mr. Godown, 
especially on this particular subject. Hence, par- 


114 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


rying the remark with a ghastly smile — which was 
quickly followed by a long-drawn sigh, or half 
groan, several non-committal shakes of the head, 
and a shifting of bodily position — he waited to see 
whether Mr. Godown were on his side of the ques- 
tion. He hadn’t long to wait. 

“ Well,” further observed Mr. Godown, “ as long 
as the world stands, men and women will associate 
with one another, so far as that’s concerned ; for 
that’s nature.” 

Now, thought Sodders, he’s on my side. I’ll 
now venture one of my wise remarks: “Well, 
Mr. Godown, to tell the truth, I was not sure in 
my own mind that to exercise discipline against 
our dancing members was the best thing to do ; 
and I so expressed myself to the board.” 

Now, Mr. Godown, in the words he had used, 
had not intended to place himself on the side of 
the dancers, as brother Sodders had evidently un- 
derstood him to do. So, it was with as much de- 
light that he perceived his victim land upon 
debatable ground as ever thrilled the spider on 
feeling his web struck by an unfortunate fly. 
Quickly turning upon Sodders, he said : 

“And you, a deacon and one of the most active 
members in your church, have set yourself up for 
defense of your dancing and card-playing church 
members. No wonder this element is using the 
church as a cloak for its meanness ! No wonder 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


115 


the church board is powerless to deal with this 
element, and the church’s power for accomplishing 
good in this town largely paralyzed ! ” 

Mr. Godown concluded these indignant words 
with a sort of nasal sniff or snort, and with face 
redder than usual, he nervously walked to where 
brother Tracy and I stood as he might have done 
had he just been employing more exertion than 
necessary in demolishing a snow man. 

Brother Sodders now saw that he was in for it. 
Feeling the keenness as well as the justness of the 
rebuke, and having no words of answer, he merely 
looked down his nose at the ash-end of his cigar, 
thence to his feet, and finally to the floor. For- 
tunately for Sodders, brother Tracy, just at this 
point, made a remark affording the discomfited 
man an opportunity for withdrawing. He slowly 
walked to the door. Without going out, he turned 
around, and passing us, at length intrenched him- 
self behind his office desk, a position which, here- 
tofore, had been so impregnable against the efforts 
of victims less informed than Mr. Godown. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


COUPLE of weeks after the events narrated in 



the last chapter, I chose as the theme of my 
Sunday morning sermon, “ The Example of Jesus 
the Key to the Solution of Life’s Problem.” The 
sermon was an attempted exposition of Paul’s 
thought in the second verse of the eighth chapter 
of Romans, “ For the law of the spirit of life in 
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of 
sin and death.” I showed that if the Christian, 
before attempting to take up in his own strength 
each day’s trial as he comes to it, could only have 
presence of mind to reflect as to how Jesus con- 
ducted himself under similar circumstances, he 
would And his way in life cleared of its 'difficulties. 
I further showed that the reason why the Christian 
does not ordinarily have such presence of mind, is 
probably because he is not sufficiently filled with 
the mind, the spirit of Jesus. 

According to previous arrangement, a children’s 
exercise, or service, took the place of preaching 
that evening. When the time for the exercises 
to begin had arrived, not having to preach, I seated 
myself on one of the front pews along with a half 
dozen or more of our very little tots, amongst 


( 116 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


117 


which were the Sodders twins, and our own little 
Jew. The exercises concluded, and most of the 
crowd had left the room. I had, also, donned my 
hat and overcoat, and in company with brother 
Tracy was moving towards the door. On the way 
we passed sister Sodders and her children. This, 
somehow, reminded me of the dear little ones I had 
sat with and kept quiet through the exercises. 
And, feeling quite jubilant — for the exercises had 
been successful in every respect — in passing the 
sister, I remarked in a jocular, off-hand way I had 
acquired when speaking to supposed friends, “You 
sisters will have to pay me something for taking 
care of your little rats this evening ! ” Instantly I 
perceived my mistake — not only in my playful 
allusion to the little ones — but with respect to the 
person addressed. For, a moment’s reflection 
would have reminded me that Sodders himself had 
recently shown by several little acts that he only 
needed occasion to do me great injury ; and conse- 
quently, that the wife could not have been in full 
sympathy with me and my work just then. At 
the same time, I felt sure that the sister knew 
from my manner that I had not alluded to her 
children in contempt, for other children than 
hers — our own child, even — were also included in 
my remark. So, after a parting word to the sister 
to the effect that her children had been models of 
good behavior while in my care, elder Tracy and 


118 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


I left the house, and together walked homeward. 

By the following afternoon, when elder Tracy 
knocked at our door, the incident of the preceding 
evening had entirely left my mind. 

‘‘ No,” said he, ‘‘ I don’t care about going in. I 
was on my way home, and only stopped to tell you 
that brother Sodders is on the warpath because of 
what you said to his wife last evening, in calling 
her children ‘brats , as he expressed it.” 

“As I feared, brother Tracy,” I slowly replied, 
looking at him with dilating eyes. “ My remark 
was badly timed — but as little intended to give 
offence as the words I address to you at this 
moment. Still, those who look for occasion will 
always find it, you know. But,” I continued, 
“you, yourself, heard what I said and how I 
said it.” 

“Yes, yes,” said the elder; “I told him that 
it’s a droll way you have of speaking to some peo- 
ple ; and that I was satisfied you didn’t use the 
word he thought you did, anyhow.” 

“ But what does Sodders say ? ” I suddenly in- 
quired. 

“Well, I stepped into his office to collect a 
freight bill, just as I was starting up here, and he 
said : ‘ That Christian preacher of yours up there 

is in a bad way. He’s been calling my twins, 
brats ! ’ at the same time throwing down upon 
his desk a letter addressed to you and all ready 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


119 


for mailing. Then he said : ‘ He’s got to retract 
and apologize, or I’ll whale him, if he is a preach- 
er.’ ” 

Again was I caused to think of brother San- 
drick’s prophecy ; in particular, of Sodders’ strong 
assurance of personal support in his letter convey- 
ing our call to the work at Hodon, viz., — ‘‘And 
should you see fit to accept this call, you can 
rest assured of my loyal support as long as you 
may choose to remain among us as our pastor.” 


CHAPTER XVII. 


W HEN I called at the postoffice that evening 
for my mail, ere my box was opened I saw 
through the glass front, a letter, on the corner of 
which was the stamp of F. M. Sodders. Hastily 
tearing it open, I read as follows : 

‘ ‘Hodon, Nov. , 18 . 

“T. W. Maybrook: 

“/Sir; — On Sunday evening, the 34th ult. , you called my 
twins brats. I will give you until Wednesday, the 28th, to 
retract and apologize for your illiteracy and vulgarity ; other- 
wise you will suffer the consequences. F. M. Sodders. * * 

From the time the letter was opened, until the 
last word was read, I scarcely breathed. Then, 
attempting to take in a full inspiration, I felt 
something, demon-like, surging upward over my 
heart that rendered further breathing difficult. 
Rapidly, sentence after sentence — red-hot as thun- 
derbolts, and inspired by a spirit from beneath—^ 
commenced to take form in my mind as a reply. 
So, by the time I reached my study, I had but to 
take up my pen and transfer these sentences to 
paper, to have my reply ready for mailing. It 
read as follows : 


( 120 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


121 


“Hodon, Nov. , 18 . 

“F. M. SODDERS, 

‘ ‘Your insulting letter just received, and I deign to ac- 
knowledge the receipt of such an insult only because it affords 
me an opportunity for defying you to do your worst, and for 
reminding you that I am not in any sense your slave, purchased 
with your money, and hence in your power and subject to your 
lash. As to sister Sodders, I shall conduct myself towards her 
in the future precisely in the same manner as though the infor- 
mation that she chose to feel offended at the remark to which 
you allude had come to me through any other agency than 
yourself. In other words, any explanation I may hereafter 
choose to make to sister Sodders, will be made precisely when 
and where I may choose to make it, and in no sense in accord- 
ance with any limitation as to time that you may have set. In 
the meantime, sir, I have nothing further to say to you, indi- 
vidually, on the subject, except to warn you to keep close to 
the facts in any move that you may make in defamation of my 
character ; for to the extent that the same may be damaged by 
you, you will be compelled by process of law to foot the bill. 

“T. W. Maybrook. ’ ’ 

Then I rather proudly read what I had written 
to Mrs. Maybrook, putting into the words the 
same bitter and defiant spirit in which they had 
been written. As I remember now, it was all 
done with an air which said, “You need have no 
fear, my dear ; you have a husband entirely capa- 
ble of protecting the family interests, when neces- 
sary.” When the last word had been read, I 
paused for wife’s indorsement; but, while she 
offered no word of objection, I saw that the reply 
did not meet with the cordial approval I had ex- 
pected. Probably, had she been asked, she 


122 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


couldn’t have told, just then, why she didn’t alto- 
gether approve of it. 

That evening I sat struggling with my tumultu- 
ous feelings long after the other members of the 
family had retired. And, when I did retire, I was 
restless and unable to sleep until long after mid- 
night. “ How was this matter to end ? ” I again, 
and again, asked myself. I shrank not from any 
corporal punishment within the power of the little 
man to inflict, for I felt that I was able to take 
care of myself, should it come to that. But I did 
shrink from the unpleasant publicity in which 
such a collision would, inevitably, result. What 
mattered my innocence of intention ? I was to do 
so-and-so by a specifled time, or suffer the conse- 
quences. I had replied in equally positive terms 
that I should select my own time and place, to 
the utter ignoring of the husband’s dictum. I per- 
suaded myself that the method in accordance with 
which the problem that confronted me was to be 
solved, was clearly outlined in my own mind, and, 
from the stand I had taken, the answer could, 
hardly be considered an unknown quantity. 
Whatever it might prove to be, I felt at the time 
that it could hardly result in anything else than 
heart-burning and shame for me and mine, and 
the church to which I ministered. One thing, 
however, was even then a certainty — the course 
decided upon brought neither peace of mind nor 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


133 


sleep. And, thus, I wrestled with my problem 
until after the clock had struck three — and even 
four — in the morning. Then, suddenly, these 
words, made up of scintillating characters, which 
in quick succession ran out and formed them- 
selves, as in fire-works, outlined themselves upon 
my deadened brain, — “The — spirit — of — Christ — 
hath — made — ” And, as I awaited the formation 
of the remaining words, thought returned. My 
eyes opened, and I was wide awake, as I recog- 
nized my text of the day before. Instantly its 
thought, and that of the sermon, crowded upon my 
mind, and I spoke aloud the word, Victory ! 
For, I said then, that the law of the spirit of life 
in Christ — and not the law of the spirit from the 
pit — should be my key for solving the problem of 
conduct then confronting me. And, late as it was, 
I arose from my bed, committed the reply already 
written to the flames, took up pen and paper and 
wrote the following, which, while it entirely pre- 
served my dignity and manhood, was at the same 
time pervaded by a Christian spirit : 

‘ ‘Dear Brother Sodders,— Your letter of yesterday came to 
hand, red-hot. Its spirit is, evidently, very bad, especially in 
one claiming to be a Christian, as you do— such a spirit as 
almost always breeds its like in the hearts of others. But, be- 
cause you have forgotten your better self, is no reason why I 
should do the same. If the public were to read your letter, 
would it regard it in any other light than a case of persecution? 
If you and sister Sodders had felt aggrieved, or were in doubt 


124 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


as to my meaning with regard to any remark I may have 
dropped, did you not owe it to me, as between man and man — 
to say nothing of Christian bonds — to remind me of such griev- 
ance in much milder terms? Had you done so, and then set a 
time for an explanation , I should have been promptly on hand 
at the time specified, as being only too glad to make any neces- 
sary explanation. And even now, at my own convenience, 
time and place, I shall talk this matter over with sister Sodders 
and yourself ; but I cannot do so in the time prescribed by your- 
self. Were I so to do, it would be a virtual acknowledgment 
on my part that I am in your power, and subject to your dictum, 
which is by no means the case. Besides, were I to do precisely 
as you demand, it would be at a great sacrifice of my personal 
manhood, and I should be degraded in my own eyes, even. 

‘ ‘I have the honor to be your brother in Christ, 

“T. W. Maybrook.” 


CHAPTEH XVIII. 


O N Thursday morning, elder Tracy and Potts 
stepped into Sodders’ office, and found that 
erstwhile suave and placid little man in a great 
fury. 

“Has elder Maybrook apologized?” asked 
Tracy. 

“Xo; and the time’s gone by, too, when an 
apology would have done him any good. Noth- 
ing short of soundly punching that man’s head 
will satisfy me, now ; and I expect to have that 
satisfaction, too, before I am an hour older ! ” 

“As I told you,” began elder Tracy, in a con- 
ciliating manner, “I heard the remark myself; 
and, while I thought it a little ill-timed, under the 
circumstances, and while it would have been a 
little rough had he really meant it, still, I know 
him well enough to know — ” 

“ That he don’t have any love for F. M. Sodders ; 
and that he meant it as an insult to him ! ” Sod- 
ders indignantly interrupted. “ But I’ll teach him 
how to insult the decent and villify and abuse the 
innocent!” So saying, he hastily picked up his 
hat and rushed out of the office and up the street 

in the direction of our home. 

( 125 ) 


126 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


“ He’s gone up to whale Bro. Maybrook, Potts ! 
I guess we’d better follow at a safe distance and 
protect our preacher,” said Tracy. 

“You don’t mean to say ung-ung-ung-ung at 
that man would strike Bro, Maybrook,, do you ! ” 
indignantly asked Potts, with a rather frightful 
under- strain of voice, and breathlessly bringing up 
with the last word. 

“ I’ve never yet known a little man that wasn’t 
domineering and full of fight,” said Tracy ; “ and 
I’m inclined to think that if he finds Bro. May- 
brook, as hot as Sodders is now, there’ll be 
trouble. For the sake of the church, such a thing 
must not be allowed to happen. Come, let’s walk 
up the street behind him and see what comes of 
it.” 

At the same time these scenes in connection 
with Sodders’ office were being enacted, as sub- 
sequently reported by elder Tracy, I was leis- 
urely walking in the direction of the postoffice 
from the opposite direction — for the mail had just 
come in. When I had progressed to within a 
block and a half of the postoffice, I observed Sod- 
ders enter for his maiL I thought I observed that 
his face was paler, and that he walked faster than 
usual. Almost immediately he reappeared, and 
was now slowly walking towards me, his eyes 
bent downward, devouring the contents of my 
reply of the evening before, which I recognized 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


127 


from the envelope. Slower and still slower he 
walked, until, when within a few yards of me, he 
came to a full stop, his head still down. Then, 
having refolded the letter and thrust it into his 
pocket, he, for the first time, raised his eyes in 
the direction he was going, and — saw me. A few 
more steps and I should have been past him ; but 
rapidly changing his glance from me to the 
ground, he as rapidly turned on his heel and 
walked in advance of me, by the postoffice, and 
thence towards his own office. 

Again I exultingly exclaimed, under my breath, 
“Victory through Christ!” For, while my reply 
had preserved for myself a manly independence, 
it had been characterized by the Christ spirit. 
This had proven too much for Sodders. And 
again and again, as I wended my way homeward 
that morning, the words of the great apostle raced 
through my mind as a kind of a triumphant quo- 
tation, “The law of the spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 
death.” 


CHAPTER XIX. 


MASS meeting in the interest of Associated 



Jy Charities had been called for the evening 
succeeding the events of the last chapter. It was 
to be a union meeting, so far as the churches were 
concerned. And the churches had, also, found it 
easy to agree upon the speaker of the evening — a 
well known philanthropist from the city. When I 
entered — a little late — the room was packed with 
those of all faiths and no faith. In short, the 
assemblage was, in every way, representative of 
our population. 

It may seem a little strange to some of my read- 
ers to be told of Mr. Godown’s calling the house 
to order and assuming the leadership of the meet- 
ing. But such is the fact, nevertheless. It would 
hardly be doing Mr. Godown justice to say that 
he led in dispensing Hodon’s charities solely be- 
cause he was in the lead ; that, in other words, he 
wouldn’t have been in the charitable work at all 
had he not been allowed to lead. On the con- 
trary, from a long residence in the community, he 
had come to be fully established in the minds of 
all as a man possessed of genuine sympathy for 
the needy and hindmost in the race of life. 


( 128 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


129 


As already remarked, he couldn’t tolerate hypoc- 
risy in any of its shades of pretense and sham. 
Having, himself, failed to profit by the lesson to 
be learned from the Master’s meaning question to 
Peter, referring to the conduct of another^ What 
is that to thee ? follow thou me,” he had faulted 
Christians to the extent even of imperiling his 
own soul. And it is to be greatly feared, also, 
that he had often been harsh and indiscriminating 
in his judgments of professors, confounding mere 
infancy and feebleness with actual dissimulation. 

Hence, as things hadn’t gone to suit him on this 
particular evening, and in view of the grossly in- 
consistent lives of many in all the churches — 
some of whom he knew to be present — it was no 
surprise to those who knew Mr. Godown to hear 
him discourse at some length on Christian dignity 
before allowing the audience to disperse. As his 
short and broad body with its usual stoop, red 
face, closely-clipped beard and trailing nose loom- 
ed up rather awkwardly before the audience, sug- 
gesting lack of experience in public speaking, the 
downward strokes of his heavy right arm at the 
same time suggested weighty argument, before 
which everybody would have to go down. 

Said he : — ‘‘We canie here this evening in the 
interest of the suffering poor ; but so far as I can 
see, nothing practical has been done. And yet, 
9 


130 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


this audience is largely composed of Christians — 
those who profess to be followers of Him who went 
about doing good, and said, ‘ The poor ye have 
always with you.’ But I feel it my duty to say 
that not only does the negative phase of many of 
their lives, as witnessed here this evening and 
elsewhere, argue their claim to be mere pretense, 
but that the positive trend of their lives proves the 
same thing. For instance, there are, perhaps, a 
dozen in each of the churches — and some of these 
dozens are here this evening, too, — who belong to 
the dancing club and attend the worldly dance. 
They not only do this, but actually endeavor to 
justify their irregularity by claiming that it affords 
them unusually good opportunity for doing per- 
sonal work for Christ — some even going to the 
sacrilegious extent of quoting the Bible to prove 
that the modern dance has the Divine approval.” 

Here brother Hardencase arose with book in 
hand and growled out : 

“ I suppose he means me, from that ! And I 
should jist like for him to tell me where this Book 
says that dancen’ is prohibited. He can’t find it 
in the book ; it’s not thar ! ” 

Instantly Mr. Godown quoted Gal. 5:21: 

“‘Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings^ 
and such like : of the which I tell you before, as I 
have also told you in time past, that they which do 
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’ 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


131 


Now, reveling in this passage, is strongly con- 
demned ; and if I were to admit — which I do not — 
that the apostle did not intend to include dancing 
in ‘revelings,’ it certainly is one of the ^ such 
likes 

Through Mr. Grodown’s rapid quotation and 
comment, brother Hardencase remained standing, 
but was, at last, pulled down by sister Hardencase 
and Hester amidst general laughter, while the cry, 

“Godownl” “Godown!” went up from all 
parts of the house. 

“Again” — continued the speaker with his cus- 
tomary nasal sniff which always meant that some- 
thing else was coming, and which might as well 
have taken the place of his “ again” — “ it’s a mat- 
ter of daily occurrence that certain individuals 
(and some of them are here this evening), who 
claim the name ‘ Christian,’ not only go into the 
saloons and name the drinks, but actually vote 
and sign their names to petitions for saloons. It’s 
a fact just as well known that these same persons 
don’t show themselves inside the churches where 
they claim membership more than about once a 
year, and then only because of a curiosity to see 
whether an evangelist has one or two pairs of 
wings, or to see the red, white and blue balls of 
popcorn on the Christmas tree ! 

“ Still, others there are who, while they may not 


132 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


take to the drink, to dancing or to cards, nev- 
ertheless, find diversion in persecuting their pas- 
tors. [Nasal snifi*.] Now, I say that a church 
member who sends his pastor an insulting letter 
will be found to be a hypocrite in religion, a des- 
pot in his family, and too cowardly to meet a 
preacher face to face ! ” 

Here a certain little man heaved a restful sigh, 
his vealy face turning a shade paler, and causing 
his lips to appear all the redder. 

“I have but one more word in conclusion,” con- 
tinued the speaker, with his nasal sniff again, “ and 
it is this : If I still claimed to be a Christian — 
which I don’t — it seems to me, now, that my con- 
sciousness of the dignity of the Christian calling 
would cause me to direct my life upon a higher 
plane. The dignity of any calling depends upon 
the dignity of the party calling. If his imperial 
majesty, whose hand is kissed by servile courtiers, 
were to call these unworthy Christians to this sup- 
posed dignity, would they not, as courtiers, be 
very careful to not stoop to any act tending to 
lower the dignity of their calling, but especially of 
him who had called them? Yet, professing the 
Christian calling, they habitually stoop to the 
commission of such acts as would tend to compro- 
mise the dignity even of a third-rate king, at the 
same time saying in effect to the rest of us : ‘ Ho ! 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


133 


you poor, miserable scalawags, just look at us and 
see what you might have been.’ ” 

Then the speaker dismissed the audience, which 
broke up with cat-calls and derisive whoops. 


CHAPTER XX. 


AGUE rumors of an Indian outbreak upon the 



V northern border had given place to positive 
telegraphic and editorial confirmation, and all 
this to military orders by those in command of 
the State Militia. 

Potts, as captain of Company D, 2d Regiment of 
the State Guards, had received orders to at once 
conduct his company by rail northward, and 
guard certain exposed towns. There was barely 
time for donning the blue, and an afternoon drill. 
An uncultivated field at one side of the town 
served as a rallying ground for soldiers and citi- 
zens. A few young men who, just then, on account 
of poor health, happened to be unfortunate in be- 
ing enlisted as guards, rather than incur the sus- 
picion of cowardice, promptly reported for duty. 
There was martial music which thrilled all hearts. 
There was the usual uniformity of dress and of 
movement as the manual of arms was gone 
through with. Every mother’s son presented a 
soldierly appearance, and many mothers were 
present to look admiringly on. If some of the 
boys exhibited finer forms than Potts, certainly 
none of them displayed his military bearing. 


( 134 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


135 


owing to Ms long military training in South 
America. 

On the morning following, Company D infor- 
mally assembled at the depot to take the train for 
the north. The drum was already heard in that 
direction, and thither the citizens massed to see 
the boys off. Amongst the very last to arrive was 
the captain. Along the private pathway connect- 
ing the Hardencase home with the town, Potts 
and Hester Yane slowly walked in the direction 
of the depot. His eyes were bent upon the ground, 
as expressive of interest in what she was saying. 
Her hand rested upon his arm ; and as she earn- 
estly and rapidly talked she looked up into his 
face, — in admiration merely for the neat uniform 
and soldierly grace — or through fear of harm that 
might befall him while on the expedition? Who 
should read the heart of Hester Yane? Still, how 
could her womanly heart have helped dwell- 
ing in the past, just then? How could she have 
helped placing a high estimate upon the man who 
walked beside her, and whom she had known so 
long and favorably? 

Five days had elapsed since the departure of 
Company D, and the papers had as yet brought 
no news of a bloody fight with the Indians. Re- 
port, however, had reached town that our boys 
had had nothing to eat since leaving home but 
hard-tack and salt pork. This report stirred up 


136 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


the dear ones at home to immediate relief. Ac- 
cordingly, a great many boxes were hastily packed 
with provisions, amongst which were twenty-five 
dressed chickens and turkeys which were slaught- 
ered for this purpose. These provisions were im- 
mediately shipped by express to the seat of war ; 
but it so happened that the Indians had already 
surrendered, and the train carrying the provisions 
passed the train carrying Company D on the 
homeward trip. The day after the return, the 
Hodon Sell Out contained the following para- 
graph, preceded by these flaming headlines : 

‘ ‘The Indian war ends with a great battle! Many lives sac- 
rificed, and poultry blood flows like water! Company D be- 
haves like trained regulars, and victory perches upon its ban- 
ners ! But a large number of chickens and turkeys no longer 
perch upon their roosts! We have met the enemy and he is 
ours, — provided the boxes in which he was packed are returned 
to Hodon ! While the Indians were sullenly moving from the 
north towards the mouth of the funnel , the regulars ’ bayonets 
and the Hotchkiss guns being ready to receive them, an unex- 
pected attack by feathered bipeds was suddenly made from the 
south intended to be received upon the table -fork bayonets 
of Company D ! 

‘ ‘But, laying all jokes aside, the boys have come back home, 
and we are as genuinely glad to see them as if they had been 
gone a whole week. Every boy is a hero in the estimation of 
all of Hodon ’s grateful citizens; as much so as if the blood 
which Company D was the occasion of shedding had been 
Indian instead of poultry blood. Yes, the boys were and are 
really brave, as themselves have abundantly proven. While 
stationed at the north, they occupied a position of real danger. 
They stood as a wall between the Indians and the rest of us. 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


13T 


Ugh! that’s why the writer feels so grateful to Company D. 
When he thinks about those wicked Brules, measuring other’s 
bravery by his own, he wonders why every member of Com- 
pany D who could raise the money didn’t hire a substitute. 
The writer certainly should have done so. 


CHAPTER XXI. 


T he return of summer found us still in charge 
of the church at Hodon. A great change for 
the better had taken place in the church. An- 
other protracted meeting during the latter part of 
the winter just closed had so greatly increased our 
membership as to render a new and larger house 
of worship a necessity. Xor was the enthusiasm 
and money requisite for the undertaking lacking. 
A ten thousand dollar brick edifice was already in 
process of erection, and would be ready for dedica- 
tion by late autumn. This supplied employment 
for mind and hand of all ; and, no doubt, took the 
place of many follies which our worldly-minded 
families would otherwise have indulged in. 

But, alas ! just as light began to break in pros- 
perity there suddenly appeared a total eclipse, and 
all again was darkness. That wonderful change 
which we call death was destined soon to work 
such a transformation in the being of our idolized 
child as to cause him to disappear forever from 
our presence and home. 

Little Jew had ever been the light of our hearts 
and home as passing through periods of deepest 

discouragement in Hodon. His childish prattle 
( 138 ) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


139 


and guileless ways — at times so uninitiated, 
and at others, so droll — but withal, so inquisitive 
as to the strange things he saw about him, afforded 
a never-failing antidote for the blues. 

Late one afternoon, observing a day laborer 
passing in front of our house in the direction of 
his home, his curiosity was aroused by the man’s 
soiled clothing and the dinner-pail which he car- 
ried in his hand. In response to his eager ques- 
tioning I explained that this was a poor man. 
Then I explained the difference between a poor 
and a rich man ; that while the rich man has 
plenty of money and can purchase anything he 
wants, the poor man must work hard all day for 
his dollar, and that this dollar is all he has with 
which to purchase food and clothing for his wife 
and children. 

As a result, I had great difficulty in convincing 
the little fellow that a poor man has equal chance 
with the rich man in the race for heaven and in 
privileges to be enjoyed when once there. 

‘‘Papa,” said he, “can a poor man go to 
heaven ? ” 

“Yes, dear; as easily as a rich man.” 

“ How can he get there ? ” 

“ Oh ! God will make him fly up to heaven when 
he dies. God wants all good people to live with 
him in heaven, some day.” 


140 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


‘‘How can he fly up when he ain’t got any 
feathers ? ” 

I was again at a loss for a sufficiently literal 
answer that should possess the additional merit of 
being true. Seeming to notice my hesitation, he 
again quickly asked : 

“ But would God want a poor man to live up in 
heaven with him with such soiled and ugly clothes 
on?” 

I felt that I ought to keep up some way, and 
replied : 

“ No, indeed ; but God will give him some beau- 
tiful shining clothes to wear in heaven if he is a 
good man in this world.” 

After a moment’s silence : “ Papa, a poor man 
can’t have horses and carriages in heaven, can 
he ? ” 

And then, again, giving him a literal answer in 
the affirmative, he seemed to reflect that if God 
has horses and carriages for everybody, he might 
as well possess one. Hence, his next question 
was : 

“ Papa, won’t God throw down little tin horses 
for good little children ? ” 

It will thus be seen that little Jew’s stumbling 
stone was the same as that of many others, namely, 
he materialized heaven. For, if heaven is to be a 
place of substance, like this present world, cer- 
tainly a Yanderbilt or an As tor will have better 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


141 


facilities for gaining heaven ; and, heaven once 
gained, will be enabled to possess more of its good 
things than the poor man. 

The child’s confused or mixed ideas as to relig- 
ion and morals may be further seen from the fact 
that, only a few days after these last recorded 
questionings, he insisted that papas and mammas 
punish their little boys to make them bad, or 
naughty. This caused me to reflect that, without 
doubt, in many instances the little ones are pun- 
ished when they really don’t know the purpose for 
which the punishment is inflicted, and that, 
doubtless, such punishment tends to make them 
worse in every way. 

Another day, when seated upon my knee, his 
mamma sitting near, we were both startled by his 
suddenly asking : 

“ Papa, would you and mamma cry much if I 
were to die ? ” 

“Yes, darling; mamma and papa would cry 
their eyes out, I fear. But let us not think of so 
sorrowful a thing.” And then I changed the sub- 
ject from grave to gay, thinking that such a 
tender young thing could know nothing of death. 
But now that he is gone, his question through sad 
memory rings. No doubt, during this time he had 
a premonition, more or less vague, of some won- 
derful change ; that, as a bird from day to day, 
constructs its nest in the top of the tree, and then 


142 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


flies up and settles therein, so our darling child 
was thus dimly forseeing his early departure for 
his home on high. 

But we knew it not, our sight was so dim. 

Or we might have known what would come 
From the questions he asked about heaven and God, 

From his prayers and the songs that he sung. 

And yet, there was really only one song which 
the little fellow often tried to sing. This was : 

“ Wock o’ Bages,” as the words were imper- 
fectly formed by his childish lips. And even 
now as I write, I go back in memory to this time 
and hear once more — as I so often paused in my 
work to listen then — these same precious words : 

‘ ‘Wock o’ Bages, keft for me, 

Et me hide myself in zee. ’ ’ 


CHAPTER XXII. 


J UST after noon one warm day in August, after a 
light shower of rain had laid the dust and 
slightly cooled the air, I started with my little 
boy for the mill-pond to treat him to his first boat 
ride. In truth, I had another purpose in view be- 
side the boat ride. I had derived a secret pleas- 
ure in anticipating the little fellow’s exhibitions 
of 'surprise and delight on first seeing a live fish 
drawn from the water by means of hook and line 
and landed at his feet in the bottom of the boat. 
As we walked in the direction of the water, my 
mind was free from care ; and it was a real pleas- 
ure to get down to the level of the child’s conver- 
sation and both answer his questions and interro- 
gate him. 

Presently we came to where the waters of Grace 
Creek were piled up to a considerable depth, 
owing to the mill-dam a short distance below. 
We entered a small frame house, situated on the 
verge of the almost precipitous bank that over- 
looked these deep waters. Here lived the owner 
of a little row boat which I hoped to be able to 
borrow for a few hours. The boat was not only 

placed at our service, but the owner’s little son 
( 143 ) 



HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


145 


volunteered to accompany us and do the rowing. 
His trot-line, he informed us, was set a half mile 
up the meanderings of the stream, and as the back 
waters extended all that distance, and as the 
hooks had not been examined that day, we de- 
cided to row thither immediately. 

The return trip had been all but made. Every- 
thing the child had seen had been new and 
strange ; and through observing the surprise that 
was almost constantly depicted on his face, I, in 
a sense, lived over first similar experiences in my 
own early life. I had seen him clasp in his little 
right hand a minnow which had been unfortunate 
in being hooked. His eyes glistened as he exam- 
ined, in order, the protruding head and tail ; and 
an electric thrill of surprise and delight caused 
liim to momentarily shudder as the minnow sud- 
denly fioundered in his hand. During the trip he 
had also seen a horse’s skull at the water’s edge, 
which had possessed no small interest for him. 
A turtle dove had built her nest in a shrub over- 
hanging the water, and as our boat neared the 
spot she fiuttered off. Lifting little Jew until he 
could peer into the nest he saw one little white 
egg. A rabbit, also, had been seen. But that 
which possessed most interest of all was a rather 
large cat-fish which had been taken from the 
trot-line. The structure and movement of its 

breathing apparatus as it lay in the bottom of 
10 


146 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


the boat suggested to the child’s mind that the 
fish was chewing gum. 

The boat was all but ready to touch the landing; 
and in imitation of the steamboat’s whistle, I blew 
blast after blast on my double hands, as on a 
conk-shell. Thump! the prow of the little boat 
struck the pier, and the boy that rowed the boat 
seized the chain and sprang ashore to fasten the 
moorings. 

Little Jew sat directly in front of me. Suddenly 
standing, and forgetting the child for the instant, 
I gave my attention to something in the stern. 
Unnoticed by me, little Jew had stood up at about 
the same moment, and my action, it seems, in 
turning to look backward, shifted my weight and 
caused the boat to careen. This threw my child 
overboard ! Oh ! horrors. My heart ceased beat- 
ing and sunk as a heavy weight in my bosom. 
My temples surged under the vice-like pressure 
that seemed to settle upon them. The child was 
not to be seen I He had as suddenly disappeared 
from view in eight or ten feet of water as if a stone 
had been tied to his body. Without removing my 
coat, even, and without the loss of a moment’s 
time, I plunged head foremost to the bottom, which 
with great difficulty, I reached and searched, but 
searched in vain, until I was compelled to return to 
the surface for air. Again and again the diving 
was repeated, but with no success, until, com- 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


147 


pletely exhausted and half crazed with despair, I 
was compelled to desist. 

The child had not been seen to return to the 
surface, and I had carefully searched the bottom. 
Had his innocent life gone out while his body was 
pressed up against the bottom of the boat within 
easy reach ? I concluded, afterwards, that it must 
have been so, from the fact that his lifeless body 
was soon afterward found on the very bottom I 
had so carefully searched. But, perhaps, this was 
only my might have been ” which we all have in 
our night of sorrow. 

Then quickly succeeded the heart-rending grief 
of the mother ; the stimulating presence of sympa- 
thizing friends; the burial; the departure of friends; 
the desolate home ; and finally, the awakening 
from my dream, or half-dazed condition, to the full 
realization that our beloved child had gone from 
us forever. As days lengthened into weeks our 
heart-hunger increased, and we grew more and 
more desirous for his return. In our dreams we 
once more felt his pressure of cheek only to 
awaken to disappointment. In the calm of the 
evening twilight we visited his little grave and 
longed for but one word of recognition from his 
spirit home, but only the song of the cricket from 
its nest in the long grass was returned. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 


T here remains barely one more scene to be de- 
scribed ere Mrs. May brook and the writer 
bade a final farewell to Hodon to take charge of a 
cultured city church at the head of the great 
northern lakes. 

The scene yet to be described was also a boat- 
ing scene. One Sunday afternoon when the 
weather was perfect, old Foddy Hardencase, Hes- 
ter Yane and Potts slowly wended their way 
across that portion of the Hardencase farm lying 
between the Hardencase dwelling and the deep 
back water of Grace Creek. 

As they neared the bank of the stream the old 
man quickened his pace ; and by the time his com- 
panions had reached the water’s edge he had loos- 
ened his little boat from its moorings and, oars in 
hand, was ready to embark. Hester stepped 
boldly into the stern, and having regained her 
equilibrium by dint of some rather wild gesticula- 
tion and the always- to-be-expected little scream, 
gladly took possession of the seat intended for 
her. The old man seemed intent upon nothing so 

much as maintaining his supposed reputation for 
(148) 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


149 


dexterity in the use of the oar, thus leaving Potts 
and Hester to enjoy the ride in their own way. 

The boat was at length brought to its moorings ; 
and while “Poddy” Hardencase remained behind 
to care for the boat, Hester and Potts started on 
the return walk alone. A plank fence, which ab- 
ruptly terminated at the verge of a deep draw, 
must be rounded rather than crossed ; and having 
first performed this feat, himself, Potts extended a 
strong arm that Hester might follow suit. Their 
route led them through a delightful natural grove 
of young trees, festooned with wild grapevines, 
and vocal from singing birds. A thick carpet of 
tender blue grass, flecked with shade, completed 
the beauty of the natural scene. 

For some moments, as they advanced, a brown 
thrush had been pouring forth its song of ecstasy 
from its perch on one of the lowermost boughs of 
a tree a short distance ahead. Knowing that its 
song would be disturbed by their further progress, 
just then, they stood for a moment in the deep 
shade of the overhanging foliage enjoying the 
bird’s perfect rendering of its song; and then, 
almost unconsciously, seated themselves upon the 
long grass at the roots of a tree. 

As Potts looked into the glowing, matronly face 
of the splendid woman before him — the only 
woman he had ever loved, or cared to love — how 
could his mind help busying itself with memories 


150 


hot for the pastor. 


of the past? How different in appearance the 
matured woman before him from the little red- 
cheeked Hester of the district school ! But it was 
the same Hester, notwithstanding; and in that 
identity were bound up all those sweet, sad and 
tender memories which combined to make up the 
history of his own life. Surely, to live apart from 
her the remainder of his allotted days would be 
to discard ^ entirely the old life; a thing which, in 
the main, he eared not to do. 

And what shall be said of Hester’s thoughts 
during these moments? Was she still of a mind 
to flout the love of the manly man as she had so 
often done of the stammering boy? Or did she, 
on the other hand, feel a measure of remorse at 
the remembrance of the pain she had caused him 
to feel in the past? Was she proud of him now, 
as, at times, she had been ashamed of him then ? 
And, as he felt with reference to his own life, was 
she now convinced that their lives must thereafter 
flow together in order that her own life might be 
unifled ? 

We may not, certainly, know what words passed 
between them as seated there; but certain it is 
that when they arose to resume their walk, a new 
joy was swelling in both hearts; a new light was 
glowing in their eyes. Who knows but Potts 
asked Hester to become his wife ? If he did, he 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


151 


very probably stumbled on the vocal, and Hester 
just as probably helped him out by pronouncing 
the word wife ” for him. 

I’m informed that, as a matter of fact, Potts and 
Hester were, soon after, married at the church, that 
all of their hosts of well-wishers might be present. 
The saying current amongst the elderly ladies, 
that Potts would be so good to a wife as to make 
her very happy, was abundantly verified. And, 
now that his old time dreams had, at last, come 
true, and Hester was really his wife, his own hap- 
piness was too great to be repressed. As he never 
stammered when singing, he got relief in occa- 
sional outbursts of song at unexpected moments 
at the mid-week prayer-meeting, when the organist 
would not be in position. 

Old “ Poddy ” Hardencase, I’m told, is still tell- 
ing the citizens of Hodon what is and what is not 
to be found in the “ Book.” 

Mr. Godown still makes unobstructed progress 
through the streets of Hodon ; and being a gentle- 
man of some means and more leisure, I’m told 
that, in order to test the soundness of a theory of 
his, he talks of making a trip to Jerusalem and 
sinking a shaft outside the present wall, east of 
the Temple Enclosure. 

P. M. Sodders was, finally, arrested and punish- 
ed for breaking into his own office and iron safe 


152 


HOT FOR THE PASTOR. 


and stealing one thousand dollars which a too- 
confiding brother from the country entrusted to 
him for safe keeping over night. His purpose 
was to throw suspicion elsewhere ; but the tell- 
tale dust on the transom case, together with other 
facts, unnecessary to mention, combined to fix the 
guilt upon the real criminal. 

Old brother Sandrick’s familiar form is still 
occasionally seen in front of the Hodon House. 
But the weight of years is telling upon him ; his 
walk is slower, and he keeps nearer the middle of 
the sidewalk. The children all love him, and re- 
joice at his approach ; for they have learned that 
when he passes his cane to his left hand — the 
hand that always holds the tin pail — his panto- 
mime is about to begin, and the peppermint candy 
lozenge is about to be rolled. 





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W. W. DOWLING, Editor. 


WHAT IT IS. 

Our Young Polks, is a Sixteen-Page Illustrated Weekly, and is 
devoted to the welfare and work of the Young People of the Church of 
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Jl^e <$l7ristia9 p$alter. 

BY W. W. DOWLING. 


THE CHRISTIAN PSALTER is a Manual of Devotions, containing many of 
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